The Devil Reploid Rises Again Book One
by Shourukasai Rauc
Summary: Zero is dead. Dr. Weil is dead. The Resistance Base will be at peace. Or will they?
1. Introduction

I do not own Mega Man Zero or any of its characters.

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><p><em><strong>21XX...<strong>_

_**Site:... Crash of Ragnaroc**_

_**Zero's Status:... Retired.**_

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><p>Zero's helmet lay in the ground, broken by the force of the crash of Ragnaroc. Back at the Resistance Base, the transporter operator stood in shock, as did all of the staff.<p>

"Mission... Success." She said, almost ready to cry.

Ciel looked down at the floor. "Oh, Zero." She thought. She looked up at the people of the Resistance who were looking at her.

"Zero has brought us freedom. Today is the day that Zero saved us by sacrificing himself." She announced, her lip quivering. Alouette softly cried, thinking about her hero.

Ciel left the room and went outside. It was night now, and stars filled the sky.

"No matter how distant you seem to be, Zero, you will always be in our hearts." she said, eyes filling up with tears and looking at the sky, "I believe in you."

Farther away, on a cliff in the canyon where Ragnaroc crashed, two figures stood. They both wore the same type of shirt, one being red, the other blue. The reploid in the blue shirt had a distinct scar on his face with a huge gun on his back and a sword in his sheath. He was fairly brawny character with green eyes. The other figure was easy to recognize. He was completely identical to Zero except for his hand which had the last Greek letter on it. The letter standing for Omega.

"What do we do now, Omega?" the reploid in blue asked.

Omega lowered his head and closed his eyes. "Zero... Our battle's over. My battle is over. I have no purpose in life now." Omega looked up and turned to his companion.

"Uh, Omega? I don't like it when you grin that way." the reploid in blue said uneasily.

"Let's go stir trouble for the resistance."

"Are you crazy? You'll get us both killed!" the blue reploid exclaimed.

Omega grinned, a grin that he liked to use to make Alpha uneasy, "You forget." he said, turning his hand so that it would show his Omega symbol, "I'm an almost exact duplicate of Zero. Replace this with a Z, and I'll be the new Zero."

Alpha put his hand on his chin, "That would work except for your eyes. They're kind of reddish."

Omega shrugged, "Then we'll replace them!"

"Yeah. Like anyone would do that for you."

Omega gave his grin again, causing Alpha to scratch his leg with his other foot. "You're a mechanic, you can do it."

"Okay, where would I get the parts?" Alpha said.

Omega started to think. Then he got an idea. "You've got green eyes. You buy me some blue eyes and then replace my red eyes with them."

Alpha sighed. "Okay, but if I get killed it's your fault!"

"Excellent! Now get moving."


	2. Zero's Back!

Cerveau was busy working in his lab with Ciel sitting on a box. Finally, after some time, Cerveau looked behind him. "What's wrong, Miss Ciel?" he asked, cocking his head.

Ciel sighed. "I can't believe that he's gone. After all this time, he's gone."

Cerveau looked down. "Maybe he's a cyber elf."

"Maybe, but how can I know for sure?"

Cerveau had no reply to that, but then said, "Hey, maybe you could work on another project?"

Ciel looked up at him, "Like what?"

Cerveau shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. Maybe you could try to get Neo Arcadia back in order. You could be its ruler."

Ciel looked back down at the floor. "I don't want to be a ruler. I want freedom. As long as Neo Arcadia has a king, we'll never be free."

"Well, I'm no politician. I only really know about electronics. It's my job."

A knock sounded on the door.

"Come in!" Cerveau said.

Colbor walked into the room. "Uhh," he stammered, "You're never going to believe this."

Cerveau raised an eyebrow. "Another attack?"

Colbor shook his head, "No, Zero's back!"

Ciel snapped her head up, "What?" she yelled in surprise.

"Zero's back! He's just waiting inside the transerver room!"

Ciel jumped to her feet and quickly walked to the transerver room, Cerveau hot on her heels. She opened the door and gasped. Omega, or Zero, was standing in the center of a throng of people who were all talking at once to him. Ciel ran into the crowd, pushing her way to where Omega was. "Zero!" She yelled above the din, catching his attention.

"Hey!" he yelled and made his way toward her.

She got to him and gave him a hug, startling him.

"Oh, Zero! You're alive! I thought..." and everything started to get jumbled together from there.

"Whoa, whoa! Stop talking so fast! I can't understand you!" Omega said.

"Oh. Sorry." Ciel cleared her throat. "How did you live through the crash of Ragnaroc?"

"Are you a ghost?" Alouette asked.

"Um, no. I'm not a ghost."

Then everyone started to pelt him with questions.

Alpha moved in, "Okay! Okay! One at a time!"

"Who're you?" Cerveau asked.

"My name is Alpha."

"Zero, is he with you?" Ciel asked.

"Yeah. He's the one that repaired me."

"Oh, so that's how you lived," Ciel realized.

Omega rubbed his head. "Could you show me around here? I've kind of forgotten where everything is. I think I lost some of my memory from the crash."

"Oh, sure!" Ciel exclaimed. "I'll be your tour guide."

Ciel grabbed Zero's hand. "What the?" Omega thought and stood in place.

Ciel looked back. "Are you okay?"

"Um, get moving?" Alpha whispered in Omega's ear.

"Um, yeah! I'm okay," Omega said and started to move.

As they went through the base, Ciel would tell him what the different rooms were.

"And this is our command room. We can give orders to our reploid and human fighters by contacting them."

"Okay," Omega replied.

"Well, I think I've shown you all of the Resistance Base." Ciel sat down on a bench as Omega remained standing. "So, Alpha. Were do you come from?"

"Wasn't expecting that!" he thought. "Um, well, I'm from Neo Arcadia."

"Hmm. That's interesting. Everyone should have been disarmed in Neo Arcadia." She looked quizzically at him.

"Um, yeah, but I escaped before they could take my weapons away."

"Where'd you go to hide?" she asked.

"Do I look suspicious or something?" he asked with an accusing voice.

"Sorry," she blushed, "I'm just curious." She looked at Omega, "Well, Zero. I don't think you'll be on as dangerous missions as before."

"That's fine." he replied.

Ciel got up, "Well, you can take care of yourself, I'm heading over to Cerveau's lab."

"Okay," Omega flatly said.

Ciel left, leaving Omega and Alpha alone in the corridor. Alpha turned to look at Omega.

"Well. We escaped that one."

"Yeah," Omega replied and sat down. After a while, Omega said, "You know? She was pretty cute."

Alpha looked at him, "You've got to be kidding me!"

"I wonder if Zero liked her that much."

Alpha slapped his forehead. While his hand was still on his head, he said, "Don't forget. We've got a mission to do."

"...Yeah," Omega replied and got up. "Let's go."

They went inside the command room, where Colbor was sitting, typing on a keyboard, on a chair on wheels. Omega went to his side. Colbor just kept on typing. Finally, he looked to his side and saw Omega standing there. "Gah!" he exclaimed, moving his chair away from Omega. "What is it?" he asked.

"I was wondering if I could use one of the consoles here."

"Oh, yeah!" he said and pointed to another console, "You can use that one."

"Thanks." Omega said and walked over to it. He pulled up a chair and looked at the screen.

**Welcome to the Resistance Base Command Room! What division would you like to contact?**

Omega started to type. **Contact Frequency #21905**

**... Are you sure?**

**Yes.**

**... Orders?**

**Attack Resistance Base.**

**... Order received. What would you like to do next?**

**Erase last order history.**

**... Okay, order erased. Next request?**

**Go to main screen.**

**... Welcome to the Resistance Base Command Room! What division would you like to contact?**

Omega got up from his chair, and walked out with Alpha on his heels.

Colbor got up, walked over to the console, and looked at it. "What was Zero doing on here? Why would he want to use this?"


	3. Is it Zero?

Cerveau was busy working on something, as always.

"He never gets a rest. It's like he always has to do something." Ciel thought as she sat on the box in Cerveau's lab.

"Hey," she said, "you know you can rest at nights."

Cerveau looked up and said, "Did you say something?"

Ciel gave a sigh, "Never mind."

Cerveau looked at her face, "Is there something bothering you, Miss Ciel?"

Ciel gave another sigh, "It's Zero. He isn't the same anymore."

"I wouldn't know," Cerveau replied, "I never hung around him for long. He just came in whenever he was damaged or if he needed the weapons that I made."

"He seems... emotionless. I used to love him, odd as it sounds, but that's what it was," Ciel said as she looked down at the ground.

A knock sounded at the door.

"Come in," Cerveau said.

Colbor walked in. "Hey, um... Miss Ciel?"

"Yes?"

Colbor fidgeted with his visor. "Have you ever known Zero to use the Command Room?"

Ciel thought for a little. "No. He's never used it before."

"Cause Zero was just using it recently," Colbor said while using his thumb to point out the door.

Ciel looked down at the ground, thinking. "Why would he want to use the Command Room? The war is over."

Ciel got off the box and headed down to the Command Room with Colbor in front of her.

"This is the computer he used," Colbor said while pointing.

Ciel started to tap on the keys, looking for the history.

"There's nothing on here."

Colbor lifted an eyebrow. "But I saw him use it!" he exclaimed.

Ciel shrugged her shoulders. "Sorry, but there's nothing I can do." Then she walked out the door, leaving Colbor in the room alone. He looked back down at the computer.

"How could there be –?" Colbor began and then exclaimed in pain. He then crumpled to the ground, sparks emitting from the back of his waist.

"Coast's clear," A Variant Lancer, with distinct markings on his shoulder identifying him as a Sargent, said , "Let's move!"

Ten Variant Missiles, twenty Variant Lancers, five Pantheon Hunters, and fifteen Variant Claws dropped down from a hole that was in the ceiling.

A Hunter moved toward the door and looked around, upon seeing a guard, it went back in the room and shook its head.

"Lancers," the Sargent Lancer said, "get up close to the door and take out anybody that comes in."

Five Lancers moved toward the door and quickly struck as the guards rushed in. The guards collapsed with a short cry of pain.

They all started to move down the hallway, quietly, with the Sargent Lancer in front, with the Hunters in the second row, followed by the Lancers, then the Claws, and lastly, the Missiles.

A sound caused the Sargent to call a halt. "People are coming this way," it thought and motioned the group to go into a nearby room since they were about halfway in-between the grid-work of passages.

Alouette gasped in surprise. The Sargent turned in surprise. He gave a chuckle, "Hello, little girl. Would you tell us where the rebel Ciel is?"

Alouette quivered in fear, fighting hard to not cry.

The Sargent turned to a Hunter and nodded. The Hunter leveled its gun.

"I'm going to ask you one more time. Where is Ciel?" the Sargent asked, his patience getting worn thin.

Alouette could hear the steps of the guards, passing by the door. "..HELP!" she yelled, diving to the side.

The Hunter fired its gun, missing Alouette. The door was flung open, revealing the two guards. "Alarm!" one yelled, bringing his gun to bear before a claw grabbed him. The other guard fired a short burst at a Missile, grabbed a bomb from his bandoleer, and activated it before taking five plasma shots.

"Grenade!" the Sargent yelled and executed a backflip as the other robots tried to scramble away. The explosion knocked the Sargent on his back and destroying two of the five Variant Missiles, one Variant Claw, four Pantheon Hunters, and two Variant Lancers.

"Let's move!" the Sargent yelled, gathering the rest of his squad and running through the passageway, shooting and stabbing soldiers as they went along.

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><p>Ciel and Cerveau had gone back to Cerveau's lab, where Cerveau got back to work. It wasn't long before they heard soldiers running through the hallways. Ciel got off of the box and moved to the door.<p>

"No, Miss Ciel," Cerveau said. "Stay here."

Cerveau opened the door and witnessed soldiers being killed by the Pantheon and Variants.

"Hey! Check there!" the Sargent yelled while motioning toward Cerveau's lab.

Cerveau quickly closed the door and started to fast walk to the other side of the room. As he was passing, Ciel asked, "What's going on?"

"Hide yourself! There's a maverick attack!" Cerveau exclaimed. He started to rummage through his cabinet. "Come on, where did I put it?"

Ciel went to the door and locked it. She then started to look for a place to hide. Outside the door, the Sargent tried the locked door. He nodded his head at one of the Variant Missiles. The rest of the squad moved away while the Variant Missile moved in front of the door. It made an adjustment on its missile launcher and fired, shattering the door and destroying part of the wall. A blast of energy struck the Variant Missile as it started to move in. The rest of the squad moved to either side of the door, waiting for their next order.

"Let us get Ciel, and we'll leave you alone, whoever is in there," the Sargent yelled.

When Cerveau had failed to respond, the Sargent whispered to one of the Variant Claws, who, in turn, nodded to the others. One turned around the corner and rolled as another blast was fired.

"Hey!" Cerveau yelled. "Get away!" He turned the dial on his gun and fired just as the Variant Claw stood up. Cerveau fired a screen of plasma, blowing the Claw to bits. Another Variant Claw came up to him and seized him by the throat with its hand.

"Wait!" Ciel yelled, emerging out from the closet. Cerveau turned his head and looked at her with despair. The Sargent moved forward. "Are you Ciel?"

"Yes. I am."

He seized her by the throat, blade held ready. "You're my hostage, you're my hostage that will not receive the benefit of ransom."

The sound of an explosion behind him made the Sargent turn his head. Ciel's face contorted with anger and she pulled out a small knife, stabbing him in the stomach. The Sargent's grip loosened as he yelled in pain. Ciel quickly pulled the knife out of his stomach and stabbed him again.

"Ciel!" Cerveau yelled.

Ciel turned around and saw that the Variant Claw that had Cerveau had not stayed too idle. It had its claw around his neck, pulling his head back with its hand.

The Sargent took this distraction and twisted Ciel's hand behind her back and put his blade an inch away from her back and turned around.

"So, Zero. You managed to live the crash of Ragnaroc."

"Zero!" Ciel thought with joy.

Omega stood in the doorway, fallen robots by his side along with Alpha. "Leave her alone." he commanded, bringing his pistol up.

"I would warn you, Zero, that Ciel's not the only hostage. We have another."

Omega looked behind the Sargent to see Cerveau. "Alpha," Omega contacted through his comlink that was integrated in his brain. "Can you take out the one that's holding that one guy?"

"Risky. I'm no marksman."

Time seemed to freeze as Omega thought of his plan.

"You've got five seconds, Zero," the Sargent said.

"What should I do?" Omega thought.

"Four."

"_Come on!_"

"Three."

Omega fired, eliminating the Sargent in one hit while, at the same time, grabbed his saber and caused a plasma wave that decapitated the remaining Variant Claw, leaving Cerveau with not even a scratch. Ciel stood in the room, standing motionless, tears building up in her eyes.

"It's okay," Omega said gently while moving towards her. She burst into tears and wrapped her arms around his waist. "Shh, it's okay," he said again.

Alpha hung around for a while and then left.

"Omega," he muttered to himself as he walked down the hall, "this love you have for Ciel is destroying your plan."

He went into the outside, deeply breathing the night air. He stood staring at the stars for a while. Finally, he said, "I'm going to take matters into my own hands." He looked back and smiled, "You take care of yourself, Omega. I'm going to do everything I can to make the good guy part seem like a piece of nothing." With that, he ran off.


	4. Discovery

The next morning, Ciel was working in her office on who knows what.

"Ciel?"

Ciel was startled by the voice, grabbing the gun that was by her desk and spun around in her chair. Omega started back, startled by

Ciel pointing a gun at him.

Ciel breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, Zero." she blushed and put the gun away, "S-s-sorry."

"That's all right," Omega replied. "Have you seen Alpha today?"

"No, I haven't. He's not here?"

Omega shook his head. "No, I've looked around and haven't been able to find him."

"Sorry that I'm not able to help you, Zero," Ciel said sorrowfully.

"That's all right," Omega replied.

Ciel turned back to her work and Omega left. He went around, asking the different people of the base, receiving the same response. He

asked one of the men that was supposed to be a sentry.

"Sorry, Zero," the sentry said, "If he left after the Maverick incident, I wasn't at my post until later. I was rushing to where the Mavericks were."

"All right, thanks."

Omega walked out of the base and looked in the direction of Ragnaroc. He stood there, looking at it for a while and then took off running.

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><p>"This place is like a junkyard," Alpha thought, sifting through parts of Ragnaroc. "Of course, that's the way I like it. You can always find<p>

something useful in a junkyard."

He moved around, looking for weaponry. He began to feel a strange sensation. A feeling of power, of authority.

"What is that?" he audibly asked himself, moving to the source. The sensation got stronger as he got closer, compelling him to search

more frantically. He pushed some bits and pieces away and found the source. Part of a memory chip. Alpha grinned, looking like a

madman, and picked it up.

"This one is mine!" he exclaimed, holding it up with a grin. He commenced to feel through his short blond hair. He found a place where

there was a small bolt. He quickly reached into his belt, pulling out a bolt remover that could adjust its size. He quickly analyzed the

bolts width by feeling it, adjusted his tool. He then began to remove the panel that covered his memory chip slots. He took the part of

the memory chip that he found and inserted it.

"HA HAHAHAHAH!" he laughed. Then, with a surge of power, he collapsed onto his knees, and lay on the ground, unconscious.

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><p>Omega stood on a cliff overlooking Ragnaroc. He scanned the wreckage, hoping to see some movement. Seeing none, he jumped down<p>

to get a closer look. The fall was about 100 feet, but he used a weapon that he had obtained from Dr. Weil, a better version of the

Chain Rod. He grappled onto the cliff face and slammed into it, feet first, feeling pain, but not too bad. He lowered down into the

canyon, detached his Chain Rod, and started to look through the wreckage. He sifted through the shattered remains of Ragnaroc,

looking for Alpha. He heard a faint groan and the sound of someone moving through Ragnaroc. Omega moved towards the sound,

feeling a strange sensation. He stopped in his tracks, on a hill of junk.

"Alpha!" he yelled upon seeing his companion.

Alpha, who was dragging himself on the ground, looked at him, head panel still missing, raised a hand, and collapsed. Omega ran to

Alpha, the sensation getting stronger as he got closer. He stopped again, just a few feet from Alpha. Alpha looked up, a small grin on

his face, "Hey Omega. Come to join the party?"

Omega carefully looked over Alpha. "What happened, Alpha?" he asked, keeping his voice emotionless.

Alpha, still looking at Omega, chuckled. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing." he raised his hand. "Could you help me up?"

Omega walked over to Alpha, the sensation getting intense, almost as if it would drive him mad. He grabbed Alpha's hand and lifted him

up. "Where's your head panel?" he asked.

Alpha looked behind him. "There," he replied, pointing.

Omega walked over, picked up the panel and gave it back to Alpha. Alpha had his head down, looking at the ground.

"Are you okay, Alpha?" Omega asked.

A chuckle emanated from Alpha. "Wanna look down at your feet?"

Omega looked down and saw a small part of a memory chip.

"What's that?" he asked, stooping to pick it up.

"I don't know," Alpha said, "but it feels good."

Omega grabbed it and looked at it. Then he looked at Alpha. "Alpha, what did you do?"

Alpha gave another chuckle. "Go ahead, stick it in," he instructed.

Omega looked at it again. "I want to know what it does."

Alpha commenced to stick his panel back on, careful to keep his eyes from being seen. After he was done, he walked behind Omega,

keeping his head down. "Look, just trust me," he said. He took off Omega's helmet, revealing a head that had only a pony tail of blond

hair.

"If you make fun of my head, I'm going to kill you," Omega said quietly.

"Don't worry. I won't," Alpha replied. He took out his tool again and started to remove the panel on Omega's head. Omega put his hand

on the panel.

"This doesn't feel right, Alpha."

Strangely, his hand moved off the panel without him wanting it to. He strained to raise it again, but failed to do so.

"Alpha, what's going on?" he asked, turning his head.

"Almost done," Alpha replied.

There was a small click and Omega could feel data pouring in. Memories that weren't his own.

_A man in a black gown, a judge's gown, sat in his seat._

"_Guilty as charged."_

"_Guilty?" Omega thought. "For what?"_

"_Your punishment," the judge continued, "will be spending an eternity, knowing your crimes."_

"_What crimes?"_

"_You'll be outfitted into a special suit, made to preserve your life and keep you healthy and immune to diseases."_

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><p>(Read and Review, please)<p> 


	5. An Old Friend

"Boy, Zero. You know how to make a mess," a voice said. The robot jumped down from a cliff, activating its thrusters so as not to crash

into the ground below.

He walked around, looking for the body of Zero. He felt a strange sensation and stopped.

"What is this?" he asked himself. He then dismissed it and searched around some more. He looked ahead of him, covering his eyes

against the afternoon sun.

"There he is!" he thought and rushed over to where Omega's body lay.

"Yeesh, Zero. One-hundred years you've left me and this is what happened. You need me to take care of you," he said to himself. He

hefted Omega onto his shoulder and started to walk towards a ramp made of earth. The feeling was very strong now. It was

maddening. He set Omega down on the ground.

"What is going on?" he asked himself. "Seems like its coming from you. Oh well."

He picked Omega up again and went up the ramp, stopping at times to get a rest. Eventually, he got back up to the top of the canyon

and headed toward Neo Arcadia.

"I'm surprised you survived that crash, Zero. I was told that it was pretty bad." the robot grinned. "But, then again, you never do quite die."

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><p>"Hey!" the robot said to an employee of a repair shop, "I need this guy fixed up." and he dumped Omega onto the employee's desk.<p>

"Well, waddya know! It's Zero!" the employee exclaimed.

"Yep, it's Zero. Could you get him fixed up?"

"Right away!" the employee replied, and he carried Omega off into one of the workshops.

The robot, meanwhile, while waiting was fiddling around with the pistol he had in his hand. Soon, Omega came out with the employee,

who was looking startled, right on his heels.

"Wow, that was quick," the robot commented as he got up.

"I didn't even have a chance to fix him!" the employee exclaimed. "He just woke up, lay there on my operating table for a bit, startled I

think, then he walked out."

The robot grinned, "Well, the world is peaceful now, Zero. Still, let's find some mavericks. My trigger finger is itching."

Omega looked at this strange young robot. "And you are?" he asked flatly.

The robot blinked. "Um, you don't remember me?"

"No. Am I supposed to?" Omega asked.

The robot slapped his forehead. "Did that crash joggle your memory chip?"

"Probably," Omega replied.

The robot looked back up at Omega and gave a big grin, "It's me, Axl!"

The employee dropped his wrench and his jaw opened.

Omega looked at Axl. "Umm. Axl... I still don't remember you."

Axl's grin faded and gave a look of exasperation. "Maybe this will jog your memory," he said and pointed his gun. Omega put his arm in

front of him as if to protect himself as Axl fired. Omega closed his eyes, waiting for the pain. It never came, he opened his eyes and

recoiled in surprise.

"Zero?" he asked.

"What're you calling me Zero for?" Axl, who looked exactly like Omega as he was, asked. His gun had changed to look exactly like

Omega's gun. Axl then changed back to normal and put his gun in his holster again.

"Remember now?" he asked.

Omega looked down at the ground. "No. I don't."

Axl's face fell and he too looked at the ground. Omega looked back up at Axl.

"Thanks for trying to repair me, but I'm going to be heading to the Resistance Base."

Axl perked up. "Resistance Base?" he asked.

"Yeah. It's just south of here."

Axl grinned. "I'm coming with you."

"What?" Omega asked.

"If there's going to be resisting, I'm joining!"

Omega thought it over, "Eh, what could possibly happen?"

"All right, lets go," Omega said, walking towards the door.

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><p>(Please Read and Review)<p> 


	6. A Nightmare

**At the Resistance Base**

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><p>Ciel was standing with her hands over her mouth.<p>

"This... is Axl?" she asked.

Axl gave a broad grin, holding his pistol over his shoulder.

"Yeah. I don't remember him, but he says he is," Omega replied.

"I didn't even know you still existed!" Ciel exclaimed.

"Yep! I've been around. I kinda went into hiding after X died," Axl said.

Ciel grabbed Axl's hand and started to drag him somewhere. "We need to talk about what you were doing after Sigma died!"

They left, Axl grinning sheepishly, leaving Omega alone. Omega stood there, and after a while, he left. "I need a rest," he said to himself. He went into his room, laid down on his bed, and soon fell asleep.

_Omega stood in a dark place. No floor, no ceiling, nothing. He stood there, wondering what was going on when a light shined behind him. He didn't dare look at it._

"_Omega," a voice said. A familiar voice._

_Omega turned around and saw the silhouette of a floating man, but his head was inside a glass thing with orange liquid inside it. Part of his clothes was made into strips, revealing robotic "skin" underneath when it bobbed up._

"_Omega," the voice said, compassion in its voice, "Why? Why do you resist what I created you to do?"_

"_Zero's dead. You're dead. I've fulfilled my purpose," Omega replied hotly._

_"Not quite," Dr. Weil said, "You still need to crush the Resistance. __**You**__ must be the ruler of Neo Arcadia in my stead."_

"_Forget it!" Omega growled. "I don't want to see any harm to Ciel!"_

"_You insolent robot!" Dr. Weil yelled in a fury, surprising Omega and making him pull back in fear, "I didn't take Zero's body just to have you fall in love! You're __**MY**__ creation! You belong to __**ME**__!" Dr. Weil then calmed down. "I just need you to repeat these words. 'I am not Zero.'"_

"_I'm not Zero, but I can still love Ciel!" Omega yelled back._

"_Zero... Zero..." Dr. Weil said, over and over again._

"_NO!" Omega yelled._

Omega grabbed his gun that was on his back and pointed it at the door. Colbor pulled back, covering his head with his arm. Omega lay there, panting, sweat forming on his head. Then he put the gun down. "S-sorry," he said.

Colbor put his arm down and regained his composure. "Ciel would like to speak with you."

Omega got up and walked out the door, Colbor going in a different direction.


	7. Omega Revealed

Ciel was sitting on a chair, talking with Axl in her lab when the door opened.

"It's you, Omega," she said, face lighting up. "Sit right here," she said while patting a chair right by her.

Omega sat down, wondering what she wanted him for.

"I was thinking," she began, "of throwing a party about your survival, Axl's return, and that peace has almost been restored to Neo Arcadia."

"Almost?" Axl asked.

"Yes, we haven't gotten a ruler in yet, but we're holding an election. We should get one fairly soon," she said.

"_Omega..._" a voice said inside Omega's head, causing him to stiffen.

Ciel looked at Omega, worry coming into her face. "Zero? Are you all right?"

Omega relaxed and said, "Yeah, I'm all right."

Ciel still looked worried, but she continued, "The party is at 7:00 tonight." she got up and looked at Omega. "I hope you dance," she said, smiling, and she walked out of the room to announce the party to everyone else.

"_Blast. I have to dance?"_ Omega thought.

Axl gave a whistle, moving in his chair. "Man, if only she liked me as much as you."

"Whatever, Axl," Omega said, got up, and walked out.

Axl gave Omega a quizzical look, offended by Omega's reply, but shook it off. "Eh, it's Zero. Don't know if he ever really held a lot of emotion except for Ciel." He then got up and walked out.

_**7:00 that night**_

All of the people inside of the Resistance Base were gathered in a big ballroom which had a stage with a microphone and a DJ. Ciel quickly walked up the steps of the stage to the microphone.

"Sorry for the wait, but here it is! The party for a new world, the return of Axl, and Zero!" Ciel announced. "We'll start by having a dance. A slow one, preferably."

The crowd cheered and the DJ put some slow dance music in. Omega was standing by the wall, drinking some punch. He felt a tap on his shoulder and looked to see Ciel.

"Umm, would you like to dance, Zero?" she asked quietly.

Omega smiled and said, "Well, I don't know how to, but I guess anyone can learn."

They went off into about the center of the crowd. Meanwhile, someone watched from a hole in the wall. Alpha laughed. "Omega," he said, pulling out his gun and adjusting it to the rifle setting. "this is your last day." He was on the wall by standing on a small platform that he had built to attach to any wall. He popped out the sight from the side of the gun and aimed it at Omega, grinning. Omega, down on the dance floor, was turning with Ciel when he saw something from out of the corner of his eye. He swung his head around and bent to the side, the plasma bolt grazing his helmet.

"Zero! Are you okay?" Ciel asked frantically.

Omega pulled out his gun and fired at Alpha, making him jump down from his sniping spot and run off, guards chasing him. After some time, the crowd went back to dancing.

"Who was that?" Ciel asked.

"Alpha," Omega replied.

Ciel's eyes widened. "Your companion?"

"Yeah," Omega looked down at his feet. "I found him in the Ragnaroc crash site."

"What would he be doing there?"

"I don't know," Omega replied, "but he seems to have gone maverick."

"Maverick? But the Maverick Virus was cured," Ciel said. "How could he go maverick without the Maverick Virus or Dr. Weil?"

"_If you won't kill her, I will," _the voice inside Omega's head said.

Ciel's face cringed.

"What's wrong?" Omega asked, startled by Ciel's change of expression.

"Could you stop holding my hands so tightly?" she asked, tears starting to build up in her eyes.

Omega cocked his head. "But I'm not holding them tightly, I'm barely grabbing them."

Ciel looked down at his hands and drew back with a gasp. "Zero!" she exclaimed quietly.

Omega looked down at his hand and drew back, startled by the appearance of it. It was the same arm that he has in had in his normal form. Other dancers noticed what was going on. Screaming ensued, causing the people to evacuate the ballroom.

Omega closed his eyes, his arms and legs transforming, threw back his head, and gave a yell, breaking the floor beneath him in a shaft of power. Ciel moved away from him, shocked at what was happening. Omega's body and head finished transforming, beginning the process of bringing him to his normal size.

"Ciel!" Omega yelled. "I... love..." the last word changed to a growl as he reached maximum height. The Resistance Soldiers formed into a column and began firing at him. Omega's arms detached at the elbows, yet remained attached to him somehow. He pulled out his sword, pink blade glowing. He thrust his hand forward, sending an four blue circles at the column of soldiers, taking out the middle column with the blast throwing the rest of the column into the air. He moved quicker than anyone thought possible and took out the right-hand column with a wide slash with his sword.

"Omega!" Ciel yelled, getting closer.

"_Omega! She's coming right towards you! Take her out, slow and painfully!"_

Omega turned around to face Ciel with a growl, he lifted his sword for a jab and smashed it into the ground at her feet, throwing her into the air then heavily onto the ground. Omega moved slowly in, taking out a soldier that was almost threw a grenade, not caring about the other people that were firing their rifles at him.

"Bring out the grenade launchers!" Colbor yelled.

Ciel looked up at Omega, ready to strike for the kill. She looked at him with sorrowful eyes. "Zero... You're not alive after all... Omega, why are you trying to kill me now?"

Omega swung.

"_Wait," _Omega thought. _"What am I doing? Stop!"_

He shifted his sword at the last second, slamming it into the ground a several feet away from Ciel.

"_OMEGA, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO KILL HER!" _the voice said in his head again.

Omega put his sword back in his sheath, electricity crawling all over him. He put head back with a growl and started to float on his back in the air, changing back to his Zero form gradually. The soldiers stood motionless. Colbor lifted his visor. "What's going on?" he asked himself.

Omega, now completely in his Zero form, started to drift down to the ground. The soldiers moved closer while Colbor rushed to Ciel.

"Miss Ciel! Are you all right?" he asked, throwing his weapon down on the ground before kneeling next to her.

Ciel looked up at him. After a while, she asked, "What happened?"

"Sir, we've got him. Shall we shoot?" one of the soldiers asked.

Colbor looked over at them. Omega was on the ground, apparently not conscious.

"Yes," Colbor replied, "but I want to kill him personally."

The other soldiers backed away and Colbor picked up his gun and aimed it at the unconscious Omega. "So it was you that made the Variants attack us," he said to himself.

He put his finger on the trigger and began to squeeze it.

"Wait!" Ciel yelled.

Colbor and the other soldiers looked at her.

"What's the meaning of this, Miss Ciel?" Colbor asked angrily. "Omega nearly killed you!"

"Yes, he did, but he didn't! He had a clear swing, why would he shift it at the last second?"

"I don't care!" Colbor said and shifted back to Omega and gave it the trigger a squeeze.

Omega opened his eyes before Colbor shot and rolled out of the way and, after doing a backwards roll, he sprang to his feet by pushing off the ground with his hands.

"Get him!" Colbor yelled, and the soldiers began firing at Omega. Omega dodged remarkably fast, evading their bullets.

Ciel ran up to Colbor, grabbed his rifle, pulled it out of his hands, and hit him in the stomach with it.

"Stop it!" she yelled.

Another cease-fire followed. She looked at Omega.

"Omega?" she asked mildly.

Omega was looking to the side, at the dead soldiers, looking out of the corner of his eye at Colbor and the other soldiers.

"Omega?" Ciel repeated.

Omega looked down at his feet, then at them, startling Ciel by the sudden appearance of his red eyes.

"I'm sorry, Ciel," he said quietly and ran towards the wall, pulling out his pistol.

"Don't let him get away!" Colbor yelled, still holding to his stomach in pain.

The soldiers started firing at Omega who had pulled out his sword and began running backwards while spinning his sword on his forearm, deflecting their shots. He spun around and fired a charge shot at the wall, blowing a hole that was bigger than him. He then put his sword back in its sheath, enduring the shots that hit him.

"Omega, wait!" Ciel yelled.

Omega ran out from the Resistance Base, dodging sniper fire from the towers. He ran until he could no longer run, both from fatigue and loss of his body fluid. He collapsed on the ground near the crash of Ragnaroc.


	8. Alpha Returns

Omega woke up slowly. His surroundings were unfamiliar. It didn't really matter since it was quite dark.

"You've got some guts, firing at me, and thinking you can play the good guy, Omega," a voice said from a dark corner.

"Who are you?" Omega asked flatly, though startled.

The person chuckled. "I'm glad that you don't recognize me. It means my equipment is working."

"...Alpha?" Omega asked.

"Yeah, it's me," Alpha said, stepping from his corner, his voice sounded lower than it usually did. "I only brought you back to life just because you can be useful."

Omega sat up. "What do you want, Alpha?"

"I just want your cooperation. I'm sure you've heard the voice inside your head, haven't you?" Alpha asked.

Omega glared at Alpha. "What about it?"

Alpha chuckled again. "I finally found out. That's part of Dr. Weil's memory archive. I got a bigger piece than you did. I think that's why you were able to somewhat control your form."

Omega stood up, the red in his eyes flaring. "Alpha, I'm going to kill you," he said quietly.

"It kinda stinks that I've put a detonating device in your mechanical brain," Alpha said casually. "I can even monitor your thoughts, so don't you even try to carry out plans to save Ciel."

Omega looked down in frustration. After a short time, Omega asked, "What do you want me to do?"

Alpha gave a big smile. "That's more like it!"


	9. Framed

Ciel was sitting in her office, looking over some papers.

"So, what do you think qualifies you to be a policeman," Ciel asked the man across from her.

"I passed my policeman's test," he said succinctly.

"May I see them?" Ciel asked.

He produced the papers and gave them to Ciel.

"Wow," she said while looking over them. "It seems like you were quite the overachiever."

"Thank you."

Ciel made the papers look neat and she stapled them together.

"You're accepted. Welcome to the Neo Arcadia police force," she said, rising from her chair.

"Thanks," he said, also standing up.

"We'll be keeping you here for two months, just to make sure of your abilities and to make sure we don't get another Vile on our hands."

"That's fine," he replied.

Ciel started to file the papers and the man, who's name was Faucor, walked out.

"Oh! Faucor!" Ciel yelled out her door.

"Yes, Miss Ciel?" he asked, turning around.

"Colbor will show you to your room."

Colbor walked up to Faucor.

"Follow me," he said shortly.

Faucor followed Colbor to Faucor's room, already furnished with furniture and Faucor's stuff.

Over the course of a month and a half, Faucor and Ciel hung around a lot together.

"Hey, Ciel!" Faucor yelled as he ran down the hall to Ciel.

"What is it?" Ciel asked, turning around.

Faucor came up to Ciel and stood there, panting a little bit.

"Do you think you and I could talk?" he asked.

"Sure, where do you want to talk?" she replied.

"Just follow me."

He led her outside to a place where there was no noise. They sat down on a bench in an orchard of trees.

"Just some questions about your new plans," he said.

"Sure, go ahead."

"So where do you plan to put the new police department?" he asked.

"I plan on destroying Dr. Weil's memorial in Neo Arcadia and replacing it with the police department."

"How do you plan on destroying it?" he asked.

"I'm going to blow it up," she said.

"When?" he asked.

"On Saturday, the 18th."

"What time?" he asked.

Ciel looked at him, puzzled. "What's with all of these questions?"

Faucon shrugged. "I'm just curious."

Ciel sighed. "At 4:00."

"Thanks," Faucon said. Silence reigned until Faucon asked, "Say, if you met Dr. Weil, what would you do?"

Ceil's face turned grim. "I would shoot him."

Faucon recoiled. "But, that's not in your nature."

"I know," Ciel sighed. "but I've been so frustrated with what has happened that if I saw him, I would kill him."

Faucon nodded his head. "If I killed people, believing it to be the lesser of two evils, would you shoot me too?"

Ciel stared coldly at him. "Yes, I would shoot you too."

Faucon laughed. "No, no. I'm not going to kill anyone."

Ciel sighed. "I wish Zero was alive."

Faucon's face fell and he looked down. "I do too."

After a period of silence, Faucon asked, "Do you plan on being the president of Neo Arcadia?"

"No," she said sadly, still thinking of Zero, "I will not be the president."

"What's going to happen to the Resistance base?" he asked.

"The Resistance base will still hold our army but it will also act like a prison," she replied.

Faucon then got up and said, "Well, maybe I better be getting to my duties."

Ciel also got up. "Yeah, I've got things I need to do."

They both walked back into the Resistance base, going their own ways. Faucon headed to his room and sat on his bed. He looked at a big golden die cube that was sitting on his dresser and grabbed it. He pressed the middle dot of the five, then the middle dot of the three, then the dot of the one. It started changing until it had transformed into a laptop which he started up. He pressed a button on his left forearm. A small, rounded rectangle with a display emerged from out of his forearm, which he grabbed and hooked into his laptop. He then clicked on a certain program and started to put the data that was on the rectangle into his laptop.

* * *

><p><strong>Saturday, the 18<strong>**th****; 4:00 P.M.**

"_What is going on?" _Colbor thought frantically in his mind.

Explosions were going off everywhere, _chaos_ was everywhere. Soldiers' bodies littered the ground. Some groaning, some not moving at all. Colbor turned a corner, headed down the hall and opened Alouette's door. Empty, though surprisingly untouched.

"Alouette!" he yelled, trying to yell above the din of the explosions. No response. He got close to another door that led into the play room. Shrapnel sprayed Colbor, knocking him to the ground. He looked to the side into a closet. He could see the laser of a sniper rifle.

"_Is this the end of me?"_ he thought moments before a bang resounded through the room.

* * *

><p>Two guards walked up to Ciel who was looking at the damage to her office and more importantly, Colbor.<p>

"Miss Ciel?" one of the guards asked.

"Yes?" she replied, tearing her eyes away from Colbor.

"You need to come with us."

Ciel got up and walked over to them, streams of tears on her cheeks. "What's the matter?"

The guard quickly latched some handcuffs on her wrists.

"You have the right to remain silent."


	10. Trial

Okay, since I never gave a description for Faucor, I'll give it here in this chapter.

* * *

><p>The room was like an ordinary courtroom. The chairs were neatly arranged, a somewhat elegantly carved fence with a gate in it was in front of the chairs. There was a scribe's seat along with a witness seat, both adjacent to the judge's seat. Two doors were close by the witness and scribe seats and a double door was opposite the judge's seat. Two tables were in front of the fence. Four colored glass windows were on its walls, as was a Lady Justice behind the judge's seat. There were two soldiers for each door in the courtroom, numbering six in total plus two bailiffs.<p>

Faucor, an average height reploid with short red hair and blue eyes, was standing in a sleek looking tux, looking at his watch.

"Almost time," he said, looking up at the door where the judge would come out.

Ciel was sitting, handcuffed, in one of the chairs behind the table. Cerveau, also in a tuxedo, was sitting next to her.

"All rise," one of the bailiffs said as the judge came out.

The whole audience stood, including Ciel as Hirondelle, a tall, yet girly looking, reploid, stepped out, dressed in a judge's robe. He sat down, and the audience sat down.

He looked up at the audience before asking, "The court will now proceed with the opening statements."

Faucor stood up and addressed the court, "Your honor, I've come to you today to testify against the individual known as Ciel. She was held in high respect and was known for being a peace maker." He paused. "It was on the day of March the 10th, 21XX. I wanted to have an interview with Ciel, asking her about what she planned to do. This is what I was told."

He walked over to the table where his laptop lay, hooked up to the courtroom speakers, and clicked the mouse, starting an audio recording.

"Just some questions about your new plans," Faucor, in the recording, had said.

"Sure, go ahead."

"So where do you plan to put the new police department?" he had asked.

"I plan on destroying the Resistance base and replacing it with the police department."

Ciel's jaw dropped.

"How do you plan on destroying it?" he asked.

"I'm going to blow it up," she said.

"When?" he asked.

"On Saturday, the 18th."

"What time?" he asked.

Ciel sighed at this point. "At 4:00."

Faucor paused the recording at this point. "Here she threatened me that if I told anyone, she would shoot me. The data was somehow corrupt at this point, so you can't glean any information from it."

He fast forwarded the recording and started it again.

"I will shoot you."

"That's a dirty lie!" Cerveau yelled, jumping to his feet from his chair. "Ciel would never do that!"

"The evidence," Faucor said sternly, "has shown itself." He pointed at Ciel. "_She_ was gone when this happened, conveniently avoiding the bombs that happened."

"She was gone to blow up Dr. Weil's old memorial!" Cerveau yelled.

"True," Faucor admitted. "but she was still gone when this happened. Precisely at 4:00, like she said."

"Order!" Hirondelle exclaimed, banging his gavel.

Cerveau and Faucor looked back at the judge.

"We will give a careful inspection of the evidence. It seems that there are abnormalities in it. It doesn't click into place," Hirondelle said. "Court is adjourned until further notice."

Faucor closed up his laptop and walked out, sliding through the crowd to get to the exit first. The bailiffs came to take Ciel to her cell. Cerveau grabbed her arm and she looked at him.

"Don't worry, Miss Ciel," he said. "Everything will be all right."

* * *

><p>Hirondelle was sitting in his room, doubting the evidence that was proposed by Faucor while Perroquiet was analyzing the audio recording in another room.<p>

"Ugh," Hirondelle groaned. "Why did I ever take this job?"

A soft thump on the floor behind Hirondelle startled him, causing him to look slowly over his shoulder.

"Zero?" he asked quietly, but then noticed the red eyes. A swift movement from the figure and Hirondelle was dead, the shot being abnormally quiet from the figure's gun.

Omega stared at Hirondelle, carefully analyzing his dimensions.

**Analyzing complete... Assume disguise?**

Omega's appearance changed to look like Hirondelle, complete with judge's robe. Omega then put his gun back on the holster that was on his back.

"Luckily," Omega said, voice also sounding like Hirondelle, "this robe covers my sabers."

He looked around the room, looking for a suitable place to hide Hirondelle's body. Footsteps were walking down the hallway, causing Omega to look at the door in fear. He grabbed Hirondelle's body and stuffed it in a closet. He put some handcuffs that he found on the table and locked the closet with them. The door opened and Perroquiet walked through it.

"Hirondelle? Are you okay?" he asked, seeing Omega's disheveled appearance.

Omega stood there for a second, wondering why Perroquiet was calling him Hirondelle when he remembered that he looked like Hirondelle.

"Yeah," he said, making his appearance look more suitable. "I'm fine."

"Anyway, I've analyzed the audio and I couldn't find any evidence of it being spliced. It even has the corrupt data part still in it, but it nevertheless has abnormalities."

"Thanks," Omega said. "Gather everyone and tell them that court will be in session at 6:00 P.M."

"Right away!" Perroquiet said, walking out the door.

Omega stood there, looking down at the floor.

"_I'm sorry, Ciel, but there's nothing I can do," _he thought.

"_Nonsense, Omega. You're doing wonderful!"_ Omega could hear Alpha's voice.

Omega scoffed, closed the room's door, and sat down on the chair that Hirondelle was sitting in before he met his demise.

* * *

><p>"All rise," one of the soldiers said.<p>

Omega walked through the door, sat down, and sighed

"The audio recording has been analyzed and there has been no evidence of tampering," he let out a breath of air. "The court has found the defendant," he swallowed. "Ciel guilty."

Cerveau jumped to his feet again as the audience murmured. "That's not how a court is run!"

Omega looked at Cerveau. "The court has made its decision and that's final!" he said, trying hard not to let his voice fail.

The bailiffs looked in shock at Omega, receiving a glare from him, and moved up to Ciel to take her away. When one of them got close, Cerveau clenched his fist and punched one of them in the face. The other retaliated and gave Cerveau an uppercut, knocking him to the ground.

"Cerveau!" Ciel yelled.

Cerveau looked up at her.

Ciel smiled sadly and said, "I'll be all right."

She turned to the bailiffs and they took her through the door that was by the scribe's seat, escorted by the two soldiers that were standing by that door. Faucon looked at Omega and grinned, but Omega just looked down and walked through the other door, causing Faucon's face to turn to a scowl. Cerveau picked himself off the floor and headed out the courtroom double doors, making a beeline for his lab. He changed back into his scientist clothing and set to work creating some small cylindrical things.


	11. The Assassins

A reploid with black armor, black eyes, and black hair was sitting in a chair, polishing his sniper rifle. He had something protruding from his arms that had three holes in it and he had black shoulder guards that had an R with three slashes across it. His hair was done up in a ponytail with some gold streaks in it. He was fairly brawny, able to pack a good punch. He looked at the clock on the wall of the building he was in.

The building was an old, abandoned building, remnants of an old business that dealt in reploid parts. The reploid was a member of an organization without a formal name, but people called them the "Assassins". One of the reploids in this organization found this building as a heaven, using the parts that were still there to create his contraptions.

The reploid could hear footsteps running down the hall. He wasn't startled by these footsteps, recognizing them as the steps of his genius comrade.

"Recon!" the comrade exclaimed while panting, holding a handheld screen that had the news on it. "Guess what!"

"What?" Recon said, continuing to polish his rifle.

"Ciel's gone to court!"

Recon looked up. "What?" he asked in disbelief.

"Apparently she tried to blow up the Resistance base!" the comrade said.

Recon gave his comrade, Odin, a puzzled look. "That doesn't make sense."

"That's what the news says," Odin said, extending the screen towards Recon.

Recon got up from his chair and took the screen. He spent some time looking at it.

He handed the screen back to Odin and said, "Call a meeting. We're going to find out who's responsible for this."

Odin ran off, calling the few members of their group together. They met together in a room with a table and one light to illuminate the room. There were no chairs, so the five members just stood or sat where they wanted to.

"Why have you called us to a meeting, Odin?" their leader, Hiroto, asked.

Odin took out the screen, walked over to the table, and set it down in front of Hiroto. Hiroto picked it up and analyzed it. He set it down and put his hand over his chin.

Hiroto was a reploid of tall stature, brawny, and smart. His hair was red and his eyes were a dark blue. He wore plain civilian clothes.

Another member, a female reploid named Yua, stood up from the place where she sat and grabbed the screen.

After looking through its contents, she exclaimed, "New earrings are on sale for only $59!"

"Keep to the subject!" Hiroto yelled, taking the screen from her.

"But it was a good sale!" she exclaimed, frowning.

The screen was swiped out of Hiroto's hand by another member, who started to read it too.

This member was the brawniest out of all of them, having a huge sword on his back, and a scar on his arm that ran from his shoulder to his wrist.

"Hmm," he said with a deep voice. "This doesn't seem right. Ciel's not like that."

"What?" Yua asked. "I wanna see! I wanna see!"

"You lost your chance!" Hiroto growled, taking the screen away from the brawny character's hands. The brawny character went by the nickname "Oblivion", but his real name was Thor.

Yua's eyes started to collect tears, a tactic she knew that would always work on Hiroto.

Hiroto stammered a bit and then gave a sigh of exasperation. "Fine," he said, handing over the screen.

Yua looked again at the screen, avoiding the earring ads.

Yua was an average height reploid with a skinny waist. Blue was her favorite color, and hence it was the color of her clothes. Blue cargo pants, blue shirt, blue eyes, along with blue eyebrows, and blue hair with lighter blue streaks running down it. Her hair, which was tied in a ponytail, reached down to her ankles. She had a cyan dragon imprint on her forehead, covered by her hair most of the time. She had a fair complexion, often, when flirting with Thor, his jaw would drop.

Yua's eyebrows furrowed.

"Let's kill whoever did this to Ciel!" she exclaimed.

"Settle down," Hiroto said. "We have no idea who did this, so we can't go after whoever it was."

"Ooh! Ooh!" Odin said. "We could find out! I've finally finished the camoflauger! Nobody would be able to recognize who we are!"

"How many people can it affect?" Recon asked.

"Only one, but we could send someone effective with diplomacy."

Hiroto looked down. "I really don't want to go to the Resistance base and go undercover."

"Why not?" Thor asked.

"Don't you remember, Thor?" Recon asked angrily. "Hiroto was their prisoner once."

"Oh, yeah. Now I remember."

Hiroto sighed. "I wish we had Alpha back."

The group murmured in agreement.

"Ah," Hiroto said suddenly, "we can't reminisce over the past. Who's going?"

There was silence for several seconds. Seconds which seemed like hours.

Yua stepped forward. "I'll go."

"No!" Recon exclaimed. "I don't want you to get captured."

"There's no other choice, Recon," she replied.

"Actually," Hiroto interrupted, "there is. You're new to this group, Yua," he said, gesturing at her with his pen. "So you could go into there without a camoflauger."

"Hiroto!" Recon said, facing Hiroto. "I request to go with Yua with the camoflauger."

Hiroto thought about this. "Odin," he asked. Odin looked at him. "Do you need the camoflauger for anything else?"

Odin stood, thinking. "Not that I can think of."

Hiroto turned back to Recon. "Permission granted."

"Thank you," Recon said.

"I want you to return back safely back with Yua, though," Hiroto said gravely. "I made a promise, and I'm not going to break it now."

"A promise?" Recon asked.

"I'll talk to you about it soon," Hiroto replied. "Is that all of business then?" Hiroto waited for a reply. "Okay," he said, motioning Recon to follow him, "this meeting is adjourned."

Recon followed Hiroto into another room, leaving Thor and Yua alone as Yua tried to convince Thor to let her go shopping. Hiroto closed the door and leaned against the corner of the wall.

"So," Recon began, "what's this promise you spoke of?"

"I made a promise," Hiroto replied, "to Yua's 'parents'. They're really not parents, cause, I mean, we're robots, but they treated her like their own child."

"So, Yua was raised by humans?"

"Yes," Hiroto replied, "but they died during the Elf Wars, leaving Yua alone to fend for herself. She was about a preteen by this time. She had somehow survived, and I was a teenager in the wars at that time. I had stumbled upon her 'parents' and they told me to make sure that their child, whom they called Yua, was all right. They told me to take care of her. They gave me a special imprint in my skin on my forehead before they died." he pulled back his hair that covered his forehead, revealing a cyan dragon imprint. "They told me that she would know that I was a friend when she saw this."

Recon thought for a while. "I see," he finally replied.

"Good. Now take care of her," Hiroto said, opening the door.


	12. Escape

The jail where Ciel was located at was in the basement, one floor down from the main floor. Her cell was furnished with the basic needs with a little extra.

Cerveau was walking on the main floor, heading towards the command room, when he heard two guards talking.

"Hold on," one was saying. "They're going to execute her?"

"Yeah," the other replied, "she's going to die by firing squad."

"I don't know, I think that she was framed."

"Maybe, but we gotta do what we've gotta do," the other replied.

Cerveau walked past the command room door, casually rolling a small cylinder into the doorway. No one was in the command room to see him do this, nor what happened next. Smoke started to issue from the command room door. Cerveau kept on walking, now with hurried steps to one of the jail access doors. Suddenly, a voice cried out.

"Smoke! I see smoke!"

"Sound the alarm!"

All at once, the alarms started to ring out. Cerveau walked through the hall that led to the jail access doors. Two guards rushed past him from the access doors, hurrying to the command room. Cerveau came to the access doors.

"Password" it said on the screen that was attached to the door.

Cerveau deftly typed the password, unlocking the door. He went through the doors and ran down to Ciel's cell.

"Cerveau," she asked, "what's going on?"

"No time for that," Cerveau said hurriedly.

Her cell was composed of eight emitters that emitted a plasma screen, four of which were buried two feet deep in the ground and the other four were buried two feet deep in the ceiling. These plasma screens overlapped each other, creating a stronger shield that prevented people from escaping. The password for this cell was to unknown to Cerveau, but he knew that and did not plan to figure it out. He pulled out two grenades, pushed the switches to activate them, and set them on the ground, next to the two corners of the plasma screen. He ran to a safe place until they blew. Then he took out two more grenades, activated them, set them by the emitters on the ceiling, and ran for cover. The grenades blew up and the plasma screen disappeared.

"Come on!" Cerveau urged Ciel. "We've gotta get out of here before they notice!"

"Cerveau's busting Ciel out! Detachment F-29, go to the detention level!" a voice was yelling into the intercom.

Cerveau looked up and noticed the security cameras.

"I forgot about those," he said, grabbing Ciel's hand and running up the stairs.

He pushed a switch on his gun that he had hidden on his belt beneath his scientist coat and swiftly opened the door. He ran to the intersection just as a group of soldiers turned the corner. They lifted their weapons, but Cerveau was faster, firing blue circles that made the soldiers freeze. He ran past them and turned to the right.

"What was that?" Ciel asked.

"What was what?"

"What did you do to those soldiers?" she asked.

"I stunned them," Cerveau replied.

* * *

><p>Axl walked out from his room, wondering what the bustle was about. He followed the flow of soldiers until he heard the person on the intercom yell that Ciel was escaping.<p>

"_Ah ha! Ciel's escaping!"_ he thought. He turned the corner, detaching with the F-29 detachment and made his way to Ciel.

"Hey, you're not with us!" one soldier exclaimed.

"So?" Axl replied, shrugging.

"Get lost!" another called.

Axl turned another corner, going to take a longer route to Ciel's location. He arrived there just as Cerveau and Ciel were going down the hall to the right of the jail access door.

"Hey!" Axl yelled, smiling.

Cerveau turned around and fired another stunning shot, barely missing Axl.

"Hey! I'm on your side!" Axl yelled, still following them.

Cerveau kept on running and turned another corner of an intersection. Just as Axl rounded the corner, a burst of rifle fire blasted him in the back, making him tumble to the ground. He got back up and faced his opponent, scowling. Faucor fired another volley.

"_Time for a little fun,"_ Axl thought as he dodged.

He ran to Faucor, dodging his shots. When he was a few feet from Faucor, he jumped into the air and fired his thrusters in Faucor's face, pushing him and Axl in opposite directions. Axl flew through the air and started to slide against the ground. He spun around on one foot and started running in zig-zags, hoping that Faucor would miss him most of the time. Axl had lost Cerveau, but he made his best guess as to where they headed. He found them in a three way intersection, stopped for some reason. Cerveau looked at him and fired past Axl's shoulder. Axl looked behind him and could see Hirondelle, Faucor, and a group of soldiers behind him. Axl ran to Cerveau and Ciel, pulling out his pistols. He looked down both ends of the intersections, learning the reason why Cerveau and Ciel had stopped there. Soldiers were on both sides, blocking their path. The soldiers that were behind Axl stopped, guns ready to fire. Faucor stepped into the front, right by Hirondelle.

"Okay Cerveau," he began, "just hand over Ciel. If you do, your punishment will be less worse than it would have been."

"No," Cerveau snarled.

Faucor's voice became stern. "Hand her over," he said, articulating his words.

A strange light came into Hirondelle's eyes and an evil grin escaped him.

"I am the Messiah! Hahahahahaha!" he said, his disguise disappearing, revealing that he was Omega.

"It's Omega!" the soldiers in behind him yelled.

Omega pulled out his sword and buster, horizontally slashing the soldiers that were next to him, Faucor dodging his slash.

"Omega!" Faucor yelled.

Omega strafed the soldiers and got closer, spinning around so that his sword took out a group of people. He dashed forwards, smashing his sword into a line of soldiers, and then spun again, shots hitting him in the back. He growled, replacing his gun with his Shield Boomerang and started to deflect their shots back at them. Faucor engaged Omega with his own sword, furiously attacking him. Omega was more of a long swordsman, however, easily blocking Faucor's attacks while deflecting the soldier's attacks.

The soldiers that were in the other corridors came in front of Ciel and Cerveau, leaving twelve guards so that they could escape, and began their assault of Omega, careful not to hit Faucor.

Omega jumped out of the way of Faucor's attack and dashed to the side of Faucor, holding his saber horizontally. Faucor dodged, but Omega then stopped behind Faucor and gave him a kick to the back of the head. Faucor fell to the ground and Omega drove his blade into Faucor's waist. As Faucor yelled in pain, his disguise fell away, revealing him to be Alpha.

Omega was surprised by the appearance of Alpha's true form pulled his blade out, but still focused on deflecting the shots from the soldiers.

"Omega!" Alpha growled, pulling out a detonator. "This is your last day!"

Omega slashed, cutting the bottom of the detonator and skimming Alpha's arm. As Alpha exclaimed in pain, he sliced the top of the detonator, rendering it useless. Alpha jumped to his feet and pulled out a small dagger. Omega tried to trip Alpha, but Alpha jumped over it, hunched down and leaped through the air, cutting into Omega from the middle of his waist up to the top of his chest. Alpha spun through the air and landed behind Omega, seeing out the corner of his eye a jumping downward thrust from Omega. Alpha dodged out of the way, putting his back against the wall. Omega spun his sword around so that the blade was facing downward and attacked Alpha. Alpha blocked, but Omega spun his body around so that his blade spun around the blade of Alpha and knocked it out of Alpha's hand, slamming his body into Alpha.

Omega jumped away, ready to defend himself against Alpha's next attack, if any ensued.

Alpha stood there, groaning. Soldier bodies were strewn all over the floor, almost no soldiers were left.

"So," Alpha said slowly. "I repair you, and this is the thanks I get."

Omega finished off the last of the soldiers by deflecting their shots back at them.

"I didn't want to do this," he replied hotly.

"Fine," Alpha said, taking a step forward. "I never liked you anyway."

He flung himself in the air and Omega slashed with his sword. Alpha activated some blades that were stored in his wrists, blocking Omega's sword as he flew overhead. Alpha's feet slammed into the wall and he let himself fall, piercing Omega's waist with a blade as Omega turned around.

Omega gasped in shock as Alpha slowly grinned. Ciel gasped.

"Omega!" she yelled, trying to break away from Cerveau's grasp.

Axl fired a shot at Alpha. Alpha neatly blocked it with his other blade and swung his blade. Omega grabbed Alpha's wrist before the blade reached his neck.

"You should just die," Alpha said, trying to fight Omega's strength.

Omega grabbed Alpha's other arm, pulling the blade out of his stomach.

Omega's eyes flared. "I don't belong to anyone," he said and flung Alpha forcefully against the ceiling. As Alpha came back down, Omega executed an upward kick, smashing Alpha back into the ceiling. As they came back down, Alpha put his head down, spinning in the air so that he would be behind Omega, and spun, slicing his blade halfway through Omega's waist.

Omega gasped and stood there, wondering what had happened. Alpha grinned again, pulling the blade out of Omega, letting him topple to the ground. Alpha turned and faced the remaining soldiers. The soldiers knees were shaking, unable to fire at Alpha. Even Axl was stunned. Alpha came face to face with one of the soldiers, looking at him in the eyes.

"Run," he said before smashing his blade into the soldier and flinging him into the other soldier next to him. He ducked one of the soldier's shots, causing the shots to kill one of his allies. He jumped, slamming his shoulder into the soldier's face, stabbing him in the heart. Axl fired at Alpha, shooting him in the right side of his chest. Alpha spun around and jumped across the hallway and slammed into another soldier, killing him. Cerveau shot at him, hoping to stun him. Alpha quickly jumped to the side, but his right arm was useless. Alpha lunged at Cerveau.

"Run!" Cerveau yelled, pulling Ciel behind him as Alpha slammed into the wall. Axl jumped back and fired at Alpha, grazing Alpha's right temple. Alpha snarled, lunging at Axl, missing him, but then jumped backwards, spinning and smashing his foot into Axl's face. Axl slammed into the wall and slumped on the ground.

"Ha!" Alpha exclaimed and ran, trying to track down Cerveau.

He could faintly hear the footsteps of Cerveau. He followed the sound until he ran into another group of soldiers. Alpha dashed, a blue shield in front of him that smashed into the people in front of him. He kept dashing until he had gotten past them and turned a corner, still following Cerveau's steps. He followed them outside, smashing into one of the doors that led outside. Cerveau and Ciel were still running, but their pace had slackened.


	13. Confrontation with Alpha

Okay, I made a little edit for understandability.

* * *

><p>"This guy never dies," Cerveau said, looking back at Alpha who was still chasing them.<p>

Alpha raised his gun, firing off a quick volley, missing Cerveau and Ciel.

"Alpha! Hey Alpha!" a voice called.

Alpha looked toward the direction of the voice and noticed Yua standing on a small hill. He stopped running, hesitating before quickly leveling his gun and firing, hitting Yua in the right shoulder.

"Yua!" Recon yelled, running up to Yua to catch her from falling.

Alpha turned to Cerveau, just in time to dodge a shot from Cerveau. He ran up to where Yua stood, blades activated, ready to strike.

"No!" Recon yelled, lunging forward and smashing his fist into Alpha's face, causing him to stumble.

Alpha was quick to retaliate against Recon, but Recon was faster. Alpha struck at Recon and Recon bent over backwards to dodge and quickly came back up, hitting Alpha in the neck. Alpha stumbled backwards, senses reeling. He regained his senses just in time to barely dodge a kick from Recon. Cerveau aimed his pistol, trying not to hit Recon.

"What's going on?" Ciel asked.

"I have no idea," Cerveau growled. "We better get going," he said, pulling Ciel away from the fight to run towards Neo Arcadia.

"Be careful, Recon!" Yua yelled, hands clenched and at her mouth.

Alpha rolled underneath Recon as Recon executed a downward kick, and Alpha stood up, and spun around, piercing Recon in the back of the chest. Yua gasped.

"Who are you?" Alpha whispered.

Recon clenched his teeth in pain, the blade barely protruding from his chest.

"My name," he began, "doesn't matter if you kill me. What matters is that my companion escapes." Recon turned his head to somewhat look at Yua.

"Run Yua!" he yelled.

Alpha took the blade out and faced Yua, giving Recon a sideways kick to knock him over. He started to walk over to her, an evil grin on his face as Yua's knees trembled. A green bolt shot from the Resistance base, grazing Alpha's left cheek. Alpha turned and fired a shot at one of the towers. He looked back and received a kick to the stomach which doubled him over. Yua ran to Recon and picked up his machine gun, aiming it at Alpha. Alpha turned, still doubled over, and stood stock still. Yua tried to concentrate.

"Stupid machine gun," she whispered to herself. "Recon, why did you have to have a heavy gun?"

Alpha stood up, his eyebrows furrowing in anger.

"You are _really_ annoying me, Yua," he said.

"Glad I could help," Yua replied.

"You'll be sorry," Alpha said, seconds before his armor turned black.

Yua closed her eyes and fired. There was a loud volley that kept on firing. Finally, Yua realized that she was still holding on the trigger and let go. She opened her eyes and saw Alpha, standing in shock. Holes riddled him. He stood there, as if petrified. He looked at himself, looked up, and grinned.

"You may think you've got me," he rasped, "but I have other weapons."

His armor changed green, and he jumped to the side. His size started to increase, his fingers sharpening into claws, his skin started to bulge in his arms and back, and eventually blades popped out.

Yua could only stand there, staring at this change. The gun dropped out of her limp fingers, falling harmlessly to the ground.

Alpha reached the height of about four stories high and had streaks of green running through his hair.

"Recon," Yua asked worriedly, tapping him on the shoulder.

"How can it get worse?" he asked, turning.

Alpha stood, looking down at them.

"...Yua," Recon said emotionlessly, "you may want to stand back."

Yua stepped away and Recon stood up unsteadily. He turned to face Alpha and his disguise fell away.

"Ah," Alpha said, "Recon. So it was you."

"Whatever," Recon growled.

Recon jumped into the air, almost as high as Alpha, and a burst of light covered him. Alpha guarded his eyes against this light. The soldiers in the Resistance base looked at the light in awe, wondering what was going on.

The sound of helicopter blades broke the silence, and the light faded away. A helicopter with the front of it shaped like an osprey with a long windshield that showed the cockpit. Recon sat behind the controls, but not steadily. His hands shook from the pain that was coursing through his nerves.

He pulled back on the controls, sending the helicopter backwards. Alpha lunged forward, trying to smash the helicopter to the ground. Recon sharply turned the controls, and the helicopter banked, barely dodging. Recon looked through a visor that had appeared on his helmet and pressed a button on it.

"_Lock established,"_ a voice said inside the helmet.

Recon pressed a button on the left hand side of the controller, and a missile launched out of one of the tubes, striking Alpha in the cheek. The wound wasn't much, though.

Recon's vision began to fade in and out, causing the helicopter to sometimes move radically.

"Hiroto!" Recon yelled. "I need backup!"

"I'll be there as soon as I can," Hiroto replied calmly.

Yua stood quietly, worrying.

"What should I do?" she asked herself

Alpha slammed his fist into the helicopter, sending it careening through the sky.

"Recon!" Yua screamed, feeling the rage build up inside her.

A power was growing, building up as her rage increased. Far off, there was an explosion. Yua bit her lip, trying not to cry. Then a scream of agony escaped her, and she knelt on the ground, screaming hysterically.

Alpha moved towards her, his wounds gradually healing, and he lifted his fist, ready to smash her into the ground. Yua looked up as it was coming down, hot tears streaming down her cheeks. Time seemed to slow down and she moved nimbly on the ground, performing a handspring and got back on her feet. She could hear the sound of a jet engine slowly moving across the sky. Alpha's hand hadn't even hit the ground yet.

"What's going on?" she asked herself.

She could see strands of black rising up in front of her, all around her. Startled, she took a step back, but the blackness followed her.

The scene seemed to fade before her eyes, and she looked on a familiar sight.

* * *

><p><em>The inside of the house was modest, but she could feel the love inside it. A small little girl was playing with a doll house. She had unusual hair. The hair hung to her knees and was cyan. The girl looked right at Yua, as if someone had called her name.<em>

"_It's me!" Yua realized._

_A man and a woman walked into the room. The man was of modest height and about in his late 20's. The woman was also in her late 20's and had a soldier's uniform on._

_The girl looked at the woman, then at her father and said something, but nothing came from her lips._

"_Your mother and I will be going away for a while," the man said, kneeling down to get his eyes level with hers. "We've joined the army to help those people in the midst of battle."_

"_But, Daddy– " the girl began._

"_No buts," the man said, holding his tears back while the woman was crying openly. "We've brought your mother's sister. She'll take care of you."_

_The man got up and the woman began to dust the girl's clothes, as if there was dust on it, small tears still flowing. She grasped the child on the shoulders and embraced her._

_As they hugged, the woman said affectionately, "No matter what, I'll return."_

_The girl's eyes closed, squeezing the tears out of her eyes._

"_I love you, Mommy," she said._

"_I love you too, honey," the woman replied._

_The man gently put his hand on the woman's shoulder, and the woman got up, pulled out a tissue, and turned away, trying to conceal her tears._

_The man knelt down again._

"_Yua," he said, a tear rolling down his cheek, "I've loved you like my own daughter, and so, I've developed a means for you to stay safe."_

_He pulled out a small object that had a microchip in it._

"_This will be activated in an extreme circumstance. Anger activates it," he said._

_He took the object and put it on the child's forehead. It started to glow with a cyan light, showing that it was working. The man smiled sadly._

"_I have not been able to completely analyze it, but it will improve your strength, reaction time, and speed. This may not be of use to you now, but it might be of use later."_

_He outstretched his arms and the girl embraced him. The man held the tears back, but then wept openly. _

_He grabbed the girl's shoulders and said, "No matter what, remember that your father loved you."_

_The man stood up and walked over to the woman. They took one last look at the child that they were leaving behind and left._

* * *

><p>Yua felt the power of the sun in her, feeling like she was unstoppable. She rushed at Alpha, who's fist was hitting the ground. She jumped about one story high onto the side of his fist and smashed her fist into his hand, dark flames searing it.<p>

She jumped the rest of the way onto the top of his hand and heard a slow exclamation of pain. She ran up his shoulder and sent dark flames along his face. The flames barely did anything, though.

She could hear the whining of a chain gun starting to fire. She looked over her shoulder and saw Hiroto's plane coming right at her, chain gun spinning up.

Yua scampered down Alpha's lifting arm and jumped off, landing on the ground with a roll. Hiroto's plane adjusted and started to pitch up slightly. Yua could hear the hiss of the bombs releasing. The bombs hit Alpha in the face in the same general area and Yua covered her ears to protect them from the noise of the explosion. The explosion noise slowly sped up, and it was soon over.

Hiroto's airplane flew past, moving at full speed and Alpha fell heavily on the ground.

Yua stood at the place where she landed, wondering why Hiroto had fired at her. It was then that she caught a glimpse of her hand. She held it in front of her. Black. Completely black and clawed. She looked at her arm and got the same result. She looked up and noticed Hiroto coming around, getting near to the ground. Yua stood in shock, unable to move. It was the whining of the chain gun that prompted her to throw herself to the side. Hiroto barely missed and his wing flew over her. He went up into the air and started to bank, ready to make another attack.

Yua lay on the ground, the wind knocked out of her lungs by the airplane flying over her.

Hiroto wheeled around, training his sights on Yua.

"Wait a minute," he thought to himself. "Why am I firing at this person? I don't know what this person wants."

"Thanks for firing at me," Yua said sarcastically into her comlink.

"I wasn't firing at you!" Hiroto said.

"Yes, you did!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"This is stupid!"

"Did... wait, what?" Yua said.

Hiroto cleared his throat. "Where are you?" he asked.

"I'm down on the ground."

"Where?" he said.

"Right where you flew over me," she replied blankly.

After a pause, Hiroto said, "Oh."

He pulled a lever and his plane changed form into that of a giant robot, skidding on the ground. Hiroto was still in the cockpit, located in the head of the robot. Hiroto got near to Yua while she stood up and dusted herself off, the blackness fading from her.

"Where's Recon?" Hiroto asked, his voice being projected by the robot.

Yua stopped dusting herself off and just stood there.

"Yua?" Hiroto asked, worry entering his voice.

Yua took off, rushing across the ground towards the crash site. Once she got there, she stopped, her eyes widened, and her mouth opened as if she had seen a ghost. An explosion sounded behind her, but she did not look back.

"Recon," she whimpered.

She ran to the wreckage and picked up a small piece that belonged to Recon's shoulder armor. Something else glinted in the sun. A remnant of Recon's helmet lay there. Yua crawled towards it and grabbed it, remembering the fond memories of being with Recon. She leaned so that her forehead touched the helmet, crying softly.

Then, all at once, the helmet was gone. Yua gasped and brushed her hands along the ground, trying to find it if it somehow sank into the ground. She looked back and could see the out of control helicopter coming back towards Alpha who had hit it.

Yua slowly stood up, not completely sure what was happening. Finally, it made sense.

"Time," she said slowly, "is going backwards?"

She rushed to Alpha, bent on not letting Recon get beaten again. She ran until her lungs felt like they were going to give out. She ran up Alpha's leg and chest as he was getting ready to punch Recon's helicopter.

With a yell, she jumped into the air, positioning her leg for a kick while dark flames began to build up around her.

Time started to go forwards again, seconds before she smashed into Alpha's eye. Alpha clutched his eye in pain as Recon flew to the left.

"_Lock established,"_ the voice said in Recon's helmet.

"Don't you dare push that button!" Yua yelled into her comlink.

"Yua?" Recon asked, giving a small cough. "Is that you?"

"Yeah, who else could it be?"

Recon hesitated for a bit. "Uh, you don't look like yourself."

"What do you mean?"

Alpha was still clutching his eye and writhing in pain.

"Look, why don't you just kill Alpha?" Yua asked.

"Right," Recon replied, pressing a lot of buttons.

Yua jumped off of Alpha, rolling on the ground and standing up. Suddenly, there was a loud noise, followed by the noise of explosions.

Alpha's screaming intensified and was suddenly quieted as he plummeted to the ground.

Yua stood, proudly thinking about how she had saved Recon. A whimper caught her attention, and she looked to see where the sound came from.

Her own self was staring at her, noticeably trembling. Yua stood there, not believing her eyes. Hiroto flew by, wheeled around, and changed his plane to the robot form as Recon changed

from his armed phenomenon form.

Yua slowly started to change back, hoping that the copy of herself wouldn't be even more frightened. Recon grabbed Yua's shoulder, turned her around, and stumbled backwards.

"Y-y-yua!" he exclaimed. "You have green eyes!"

"No I don't!" the copy and Yua said at the same time.

"Not you, the other Yua! Your eyes are glowing green!"

The copy had to think about this when she noticed that she and Yua were wearing the same kind of clothes.

"Imposter!" the copy yelled, tackling the almost-normal Yua.

"Leave me alone!" Yua yelled, socking the copy in the face.

"All right! Both of you!" Hiroto yelled, his voice booming. "Settle down!"

The fight instantly stopped as they were ready to punch each other.

Recon groaned. "We've got company."

A squad of Resistance soldiers were marching towards them with Perroquiet in the front.

"Yuas, I'm getting out of here. I'm going to get Ciel. Which direction did she go?" Hiroto said into the comlink, sweat running down his face.

"30 degrees north of East," the Yuas said.

"Um, hello," Perroquiet said quietly to the copy of Yua. "Who might you be?"

Recon also started to sweat.

"Um, we are... Umm," Yua hesitated.

"Never mind, Yua," Hiroto said into the comlink. "I'm taking you guys with me."

An instant later, Hiroto grabbed both Yuas and Recon and started running with them.

"Halt! Halt!" Perroquiet yelled. "Division R, fire!"

A group of people aimed their rocket launchers and fired, striking the back of Hiroto's robot. Their firing was useless, as he got away quickly.

"Cease fire," Perroquiet said glumly.

A soldier ran up to Perroquiet and gave a smart salute.

"Sir," the man said, "Uh, umm."

"Come on, spit it out," Perroquiet said.

"It seems that Omega is gone."

"Where's he gone?" Perroquiet half yelled.

"We don't know," the soldier said.

"Oh, really, then what's that?" Perroquiet said, pointing to a cloud of dust that was getting flung in the air.

"Oh, um," the soldier stammered. "Hey! He's taking our speeder!"

Omega was speeding along, pushing the speeder for all it was worth.

"Anyone who fights against Alpha is a friend of mine," he rasped to himself.

A makeshift weld had been made to temporarily keep him at least functional, though he could feel his right side slowly going dead.

"_Omega," _the voice inside his head said, _"Just remember, you're my god of destruction_. _You have no friends."_

* * *

><p>Tell me how I did on this chapter!<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Interview with Yua<strong>

Me: "So, Yua, how are you liking the story so far?"

1st Yua: "I love it! I get to be awesome! Well, somewhat awesome. I still couldn't defeat Alpha by myself, but what's with the cloning?"

Me: "You'll find out."

2nd Yua: "Do I get to be awesome too?"

Me: "... This interview is finished."

1st and 2nd Yua: "Wait!"


	14. A Small Parcel of Knowledge

Recon was clinging to Hiroto's robot with all his strength, trying not to fall off.

"Hiroto!" he yelled. "Slow down! You're going to knock me off!"

Hiroto gradually slowed down so that he wouldn't knock Recon off with an abrupt stop. Omega stopped beside them, trying to start his disguise so that he would look like Zero, but since he had taken the slice to the waist, his disguise device wasn't working.

"Rats," Omega whispered to himself, avoiding eye contact.

"Who're you?" Recon asked, wondering if this was the Zero that was destroyed with Ragnarok.

"I'm someone who wants to be with Ciel again."

"So you are–" Recon started, but Yua finished his sentence.

"Zero," she said.

Omega sighed. "Where did she go?"

"Umm," Yua said thoughtfully, "She went off in that direction, I think." Yua's face wore a worried expression. "You know, I'm not sure."

"I need to find out what's been going on from her," Hiroto said. "Recon, you ready?"

"Not yet."

"Zero, what happened to your side?" Yua asked worriedly.

"Do I dare tell them?" Omega thought.

"Did you get caught fighting Alpha?" Recon asked, moving towards him.

"Why is my vision so cloudy?" Omega thought. "How long has this been going on?"

Omega woke in a strange, rundown room. It had pieces of equipment lying in the corners, a dresser with a picture on top of it that was face down.

He realized that he was on a repair table and tried to get up but found that his wrists and ankles were tightly locked in place by powerful metal straps. As a matter of fact, nothing was moving except for his head.

"What just happened? Did I faint?" Omega asked in his mind.

Odin walked into the room.

"Hiroto! He's awake!" Odin yelled out the door. "Can we kill him now?"

Hiroto walked through the door two sabers resting in their holsters that were on his back with Thor behind him and whispered something to Odin. Odin responded with a nod and walked out of the room.

"Well, Omega," Hiroto began, looking at his fingernails while leaning on Omega's table, "you don't feel so powerful now, do ya?"

"Look, I just want to get back to Ciel," Omega said.

"You'd probably kill her." Hiroto asked.

"No I wouldn't!"

"Oh, sure, people that know they're going to die always say things like that, but they really don't mean it," Hiroto said a little hotly.

"It's the truth!"

"There's only one way to find out for sure," Hiroto said, snapping his fingers, and Odin came through the door with a tool belt.

"You're going to torture me." Omega asked flatly.

"Nah," Odin said, "we're just going to shut you down and scan your memories."

"You might not want to do that."

"Why not?" Odin asked, unscrewing the panel that would let him get to Omega's power supply.

"There's a piece of Dr. Weil's memory stuck in my head that'll drive people mad," Omega said.

Hiroto scoffed. "You think that we'd believe that?"

"That's what happened to Alpha."

Odin stopped his work, looking at Omega's face with a skeptical look. "You know Alpha?"

"Yeah," Omega admitted. "He's the one that framed Ciel."

"Maybe," Odin said to Hiroto sadly, "that's why he was attacking Recon."

Hiroto nodded his head and put his hand on his chin.

"Wait a minute," Omega said. "YOU guys know Alpha?"

"Of course," Hiroto said. "We're the ones that he worked with."

"How did you find him?"

"I'll be back," Odin whispered to Hiroto and left the room.

Hiroto stood looking at the doorway where Odin walked out.

"What's the picture look like?" Omega asked.

"Hmm?" Hiroto said.

Omega motioned with his head towards the picture that was on the dresser. Hiroto picked it up and smiled sadly. He set it down so that Omega could see it.

The picture was in the meeting room and had Hiroto, Thor, Recon, Yua, Alpha, and another guy in it.

"So," Omega said slowly, "he did work with you."

"Yes," Hiroto said suddenly after a brief pause, "he did. He and I were the leaders of the group. My group was Thor and Yua, though we never did use Yua."

Omega nodded his head, thinking. "So what was he like before I met him?"

Hiroto gave a short chuckle and said, "Oh, man, he was sweet. He helped Odin on his projects, a good fighter, he had a nice personality, and, I think Yua had a crush on him."

Hiroto sighed. "Then we lost him."

"What do you mean?" Omega asked.

"I sent him and Haruto to check out a particular organization that was acting suspicious."

"Haruto?" Omega said.

"Yes, Haruto is the other guy in the picture," Hiroto replied.

"Is he still here?"

"Yeah, but he's kind of a recluse now," Hiroto said and looked down. "Ever since we lost Alpha, he's been like this."

"So what happened to Alpha?"

Hiroto took a deep breath and said, "They got in all right, but they ran into a bunch of Pantheons and Variants. Turns out that the company had been taken over by Dr. Wile. Haruto tried to stay with Alpha, but they got separated. Haruto came back pretty ripped up and told us the story."

"I'm back!" Odin exclaimed as he walked through the door.

He reached in and turned off Omega's power.

"Ciel safe?" Omega managed to ask, seconds before a complete shutdown.

"Yes, she's safe," Hiroto replied.

Odin took out the data archive of Dr. Weil, causing a strange sensation to creep over Hiroto.

"Destroy that!" Hiroto yelled.

Odin dropped it on the floor, startled by Hiroto's yell, and Hiroto smashed it with his foot, causing the sensation to leave.

"What did you do that for?" Odin exclaimed angrily.

"Didn't you feel that?"

"Feel what?" Odin asked hotly.

"That weird feeling."

"Nope," Odin replied.

Hiroto cocked his head, puzzled. "What did you do to avoid it?"

"I installed something to protect my brain from alien transmissions."

"Hmm. Cool," Hiroto said, "I'll let you work." and started to walk out.

"By the way," Hiroto said before he got out of the door. "I would like you to talk with Yua about her fight and try to understand why she was able to do what she did."


	15. Discovery of a Threat

Hiroto was sitting in his room with his back on the ground and his feet on the wall, wondering what to do with Ciel and Cerveau, when Odin walked in.

"We've got a problem," Odin said.

"What is it?" Hiroto said, shifting so that he could stand up.

"I think Yua unleashed something that shouldn't have been unleashed."

"Eh, how bad could it be?" Hiroto said casually.

"You don't understand! That armed phenomenon that she used was based off of something else from another world!"

Hiroto stood there for a moment. "So?"

"Have you ever seen this?" Odin asked, pulling out a hologram device and turned it on.

A strange gray creature stood in front of Hiroto. It had grey eyes, but lacked a proper nose.

"What is that thing?" Hiroto asked, taking a step back, his flesh crawling, feeling like he was going to be sick.

"That," Odin emphasized, "is a bodak. They'll kill people with their gaze."

"Come on, Odin," Hiroto said. "That thing isn't real."

Hiroto dreaded Odin's next words. "Yes, it was and is."

"How do you know?" Hiroto asked, getting more uneasy as the creature looked at him.

"I've done research before I joined you and found that they were, indeed, real, but as bad as they are, there are worse creatures."

"Like what?" Hiroto said, wondering how anything could be worse than that.

"The Tarrasque, Demogorgon, and Orcus are the ones we must fear now."

"What are they?" Hiroto asked.

"The first is a Primordial, meant to destroy all of creation. The second is a demon, as is the third, but the third is a demon of the undead," Odin said, his face becoming grim. "These creatures were banished, but not destroyed. Obviously, one creature has been able to sneak between the rift between our world and their banished state. This creature is called Phane. That," Odin accentuated while pointing out the door, "is what Yua was copying. I fear that you have data based off of a Phane too."

"Nonsense," Hiroto said, hoping that this wasn't happening. "Are you sure that this is real?"

"Yua is proof that it has happened."

Hiroto stood, wondering what will happen to the world. Almost hopelessly, he asked, "Is there anything that we can do?"

"We are the lowly Assassins, but we must become the greatest heroes. Only then can we defeat this calamity," Odin said, and then added, "I think Omega will also be key in defeating this new power."

"He would kill us all!" Hiroto cried.

"We'll keep him here and see how he does. I've already activated him and he's having a good time talking with Ciel."

"You didn't let him go, did you?" Hiroto snarled.

"Of course not!" Odin ejaculated. "Do I look like an idiot?"

"What about..."

"Ciel's under guard. Recon is standing right in front of the door," Odin assured.

Hiroto and Odin started to walk out the door when Odin said, "Don't tell Yua this, but you may notice some subtle changes to herself. Most likely, when you first use this type of data, you'll start changing too."

"But, I'm a robot."

"Doesn't matter, Hiroto," Odin said. "Even though you're a robot, your body adapts to the data that has entered your system."

"I'm going to visit Haruto," Hiroto said, splitting directions with Odin.

"Good luck," Odin said.

Hiroto walked past Recon, seeing that Recon was doing his job. He turned a corner and knocked on the door at the end. There was no answer for a little bit.

"Who is it?" a dejected voice asked.

"It's Hiroto."

"I'm fine," the voice replied. "Just go away."

"You really need to get out more, Haruto," Hiroto said.

"I'm fine."

Hiroto opened the door and saw his companion with a tattered brown cloak around his neck, slumped on the ground with writings on the wall and his elbows hanging over his knees.

"Had fun?" Hiroto asked sarcastically.

Haruto glared at Hiroto with a look of murder.

"Sorry, sorry," Hiroto said and sat next to Haruto. "You know, I've been doing a horrible job at being your brother, leaving you alone like this. Sure, I'd try to get in before, but I always respected your wishes."

"You should have kept it that way," Haruto said with a little bit of menace in his voice.

"No, I will not. We may need your help again, Haruto," Hiroto said.

Haruto scoffed. "What, you need me to help get you murdered?"

"No," Hiroto reproached. "We need your help to save the world."

"I couldn't even save Alpha, how could I save the world?" Haruto asked, lifting his hand a little bit, then let them powerlessly rest again.

Hiroto got up, opening a curtain that covered one of the windows.

"Ahh!" Haruto cowered, throwing his hands in front of him. "Too bright! Close it!"

"You've stayed in the darkness too long, Haruto," Hiroto said, commandingly. "Now you're going to associate, and we're going to save Alpha, THEN the world."

"What's wrong with the world?" Haruto asked, looking at the ground, away from the light.

"One man has accidentally discovered something," Hiroto said.

"Well, let him take care of it!"

"He's dead," Hiroto said bluntly.

"...Oh. Is it Yua's father, by any chance?"

"Yes, it is," Hiroto replied.

"I see. What is the threat?" Haruto asked, getting used to the light.

"Odin will tell you later. I'll let you think about it," Hiroto said, walking out of the room.

Hiroto met Odin right by the stairs that led upstairs.

"Hey, Hiroto? You mind if you use your other armed phenomenon?" Odin asked.

"My second one?"

"Yeah," Odin replied.

Hiroto put his hand on his chin, thinking. "All right, but in the basement."

They headed down to the basement, Hiroto constantly scared of what was going to happen when he used his second armed phenomenon.

The basement was lit by overhanging lights. Darkness reigned in the corners, and there were boxes in the corners.

"All right," Odin said, stopping in the center. "Do it."

Hiroto scratched his arm. "I don't know about this."

"Or would you rather me copy it and try it myself?"

"No thanks," Hiroto said, preparing himself.

"Well, I'm going to be copying it anyway, so it really doesn't matter."

"Why do you want to copy it?"

"How do you fight fire?" Odin asked.

"Uh, with a fire hose?" Hiroto said, wondering what Odin was getting at.

"No!" Odin exclaimed. "You fight it with fire! So we're going to fight this new threat with itself!"

"Oh. Well, here it goes," Hiroto said.

He strained to reach his second armed phenomenon, but somehow, it seemed out of reach.

"Come on," he whispered, getting more frustrated. "Why aren't you working?"

Finally, he quit, panting.

"What happened?" Odin asked, disappointed.

"I don't know. It just feels out of reach."

"Hmm. Oh well. I'll still make a copy of it," Odin said, walking towards Hiroto.

He grabbed the cyan dragon and tried to pull it out, but let go as soon as Hiroto yelled in pain.

"Wow. That thing is really in there," Odin commented.

"Don't do that again, please," Hiroto said, rubbing the microchip.

"Well," Odin said. "there's more than one way to skin a moose."

"The phrase is 'there's more than one way to skin a cat'," Hiroto said, still rubbing his head.

"Whatever, same difference," Odin said while walking towards the stairs.

The Yuas were waiting for them at the top of the stairs.

"What were you guys doing?" they asked.

"Testing to see if my second armed phenomenon worked," Hiroto said.

"Did it work?" both of the Yuas asked.

"Nope," Odin said.

"You have to get angry," the Yuas said.

"What?" Hiroto asked, stupefied.

"Hey! Hiroto!" Odin said, chuckling a little bit. "Remember when, in a fight, you jumped down a shaft and your clothing got caught on a hook?"

"I told you not to say that in public!" Hiroto yelled, turning around to face Odin.

"What about the time that you threw a grenade, but forgot to activate it?" Odin said, laughing more.

"Be quiet!" Hiroto yelled.

"It's working," the Yuas said.

"What's working?" Hiroto growled.

The Yuas pointed at Hiroto's feet where blackness was emerging.

"What is that?" Hiroto exclaimed in fright, taking a step back.

"That's you getting to the point of changing into your second armed phenomenon," The Yuas said.

"Sweet," Odin said. "I would like to copy that data now, Hiroto, if you don't mind."

"How?" Hiroto asked.

"There's more than one way to skin a cat," Odin said, walking past Hiroto and motioning for Hiroto to follow him.

"Wait a minute," Hiroto said. "I thought I told you to figure out from Yua how she changed into her armed phenomenon."

"I forgot," Odin casually said.

* * *

><p>Tell me how I'm doing!<p> 


	16. Recognition and Return

"Omega?" Ciel asked.

"Yeah?" Omega replied softly.

"What's going on?"

"If you're asking what you're doing here, I have no idea," Omega chuckled.

They sat in silence, a silence that Omega felt uneasy in.

"Do you think that we'll be able to be left alone now, with Alpha gone?" Ciel asked, breaking the silence.

"I think so," Omega replied. "but, no matter what, I will protect you."

"I don't know, Omega," Ciel said, her voice shaking. "After last time, can I trust you to protect me?"

Omega's head drooped, remembering the dance at the Resistance base.

"Hey, Omega?" Odin called through the door.

"Have you been eavesdropping on us?" Omega yelled angrily.

"Of course! I like romance! Though romance between a human and a reploid is a little weird, but I still like romance."

"Are you finished?" Omega said.

"Not quite. I took out that memory archive of Dr. Weil's. I don't know what had happened before, but I guess it was bad."

"Get out of here!" Omega yelled, and then added, "Hey! Wait, restore my legs' and my arms' functionality!"

"Sorry, I can't do anything without Hiroto's permision." Odin froze. "I mean..."

"Hiroto?" Ciel asked and looked at Omega. "Why does that name ring a bell?"

Omega made a vain attempt to try to shrug his shoulders. A knock sounded on the door.

"What is it?" Omega asked.

"I'm coming in, Omega," Odin growled. "I'm going to free you, but don't try anything funny."

Odin walked in over to Omega. He kept his eye on Ciel and shut Omega down and reconnected the wires to Omega's legs and arms. He turned the power back on, wary of Ciel.

"Hiroto," Ciel said slowly. "The prisoner that we caught in September, five years ago."

Odin glared at Ciel for a moment and walked out the door.

A minute later, Hiroto walked in, causing Ciel to gasp in fright.

"It's been almost five years Ciel, and we meet again," Hiroto said coldly.

"Omega?" Ciel whimpered.

"Don't worry, Ciel," Omega said. "I'll protect you this time."

"I'm not here to hurt you, Ciel," Hiroto said. "I actually want Omega."

Hiroto walked over to a control panel that was hooked up to the lab table that Omega was on and unlocked the restraints.

Omega got up and started to rub his wrists.

"Alpha is back," Hiroto said.

Omega stopped rubbing his wrists.

"This guy is like Zero. He never dies," Omega commented.

* * *

><p>Sometimes I forget points from previous chapters. So I may edit previous chapters, like Chapter 15 &amp;14.<p> 


	17. Witnesses of the Return

I do not own any of the Dungeons & Dragons monsters.

* * *

><p>Omega walked into the command room of the Assassin's makeshift base and found a TV screen.<p>

The TV screen was normally hidden by a sliding panel that was in the wall, and the screen would be behind it when the screen was not in use. The screen was made out of spare parts. Not very pretty, but was adequate for the Assassin's wants.

The screen displayed Alpha, who was sitting in a swivel chair with a desk in front of him and he was looking at some papers.

"Can't say I've really missed you, Omega," he said, not looking up. "Not after that fight that I had with you. Thank goodness the Assassins kept their frequency the same since I got captured."

Omega sighed, exasperated. "What do you want, Alpha?"

"Actually," Alpha said, looking up. "I'm more interested in what you want, with some assignments of my own."

"What is it?" Omega said, getting impatient.

"I just want some parts from an abandoned hardware company that is 30 degrees West of North," Alpha said. "I will tell you your next assignment when you come back from that mission."

Hiroto walked into the room and in front of the screen.

"Hiroto!" Alpha exclaimed. "How's being the boss of your stupid little police force there?"

"What's going on, Alpha?" Hiroto growled, keeping his anger under control.

"Just a little assignment for Omega."

"What's wrong with you?" Hiroto exploded. "Why are you being so hostile all of a sudden?"

"Let's just say," Alpha replied calmly, "that I've found a power source that's more powerful than you and your petty little band. Oh," Alpha said, getting up from his desk and walking to a capsule, "I've got something to show you."

Alpha opened the capsule, revealing a youthful robot with blond hair and black clothes. He had a cyan phoenix on his hair, along with a cyan phoenix on his forehead that stretched across his left eye and cheek, one of the wings going across his nose.

"This is my latest project," Alpha said, closing the capsule. "As you can see, I have made tremendous progress with it in the small amount of time I've had."

"What if we refuse to gather your parts?" Omega asked calmly.

Alpha shrugged. "Let's just say that Neo Arcadia will cease to exist. You have a week to get the mission done."

The transmission stopped, leaving the screen blank.

"How could Alpha destroy Neo Arcadia with only himself?" Omega asked Hiroto.

"I don't know, then again, I don't know Alpha anymore," Hiroto replied sorrowfully. "I am worried about that new robot that he's building, though."

"How come?" Omega asked, walking towards the door.

"It has a cyan phoenix on its forehead, similar to the cyan dragon that Yua and I have on our foreheads."

"Yua? Who's she?" Omega asked, opening the door that Ciel was in.

Yua sat talking to Ciel, talking about the latest in jewelry sales, new dresses, etc.

Omega motioned his head towards Yua and Hiroto said, "Yep, that's her."

Hiroto came over to Ciel, causing the conversation to stop abruptly.

"Ciel, we've got a problem," he said grimly.

"What is it?" Ciel asked, still scared of Hiroto.

"Alpha wants to send me to an abandoned hardware building to pick up some parts or he'll destroy Neo Arcadia," Omega interrupted.

Hiroto glared at him. "I prefer to finish my own sentences, Omega."

Omega grunted and looked away from Hiroto.

"Alpha is still alive?" Ciel asked in surprise.

Hiroto simply nodded gravely.

"We must do what he says," Hiroto said.

"You care?" Ciel asked. "Even though you guys are assassins?"

"Actually," Odin began, walking through the door, "we're not actually bad assassins, we more of a secret undercover unofficial police force."

"We're just called assassins because we would do that every once in a while," Hiroto said. "Most of the time, we sent in our contacts to report illegal activities within an organization. We would like your advice."

Ciel thought for a second and answered, "We should evacuate everyone in Neo Arcadia as soon as possible. Meanwhile," she said, looking at Omega, "I guess Omega will have obey Alpha."

"I don't know, Ciel," Omega said. "What if the parts that Alpha wants me to get are for his new robot?"

"New robot?" Ciel asked.

"Yeah," Hiroto said, "he's got a new robot. He's already built its frame. It also seems to be designed after Yua's and my dragon microchip."

"Oh, the one that you have on your forehead?" Ciel asked.

"Right," Hiroto replied, nodding.

"But we can't just let Alpha kill the people!" Ciel exclaimed.

Recon walked into the room.

"Sir," he said to Hiroto, "Axl is causing quite a fuss. Should I knock him out again?"

Hiroto sighed. "No, just let him rave."

"Can Axl go with Omega?" Ciel asked.

"You'd have to ask Axl," Hiroto said.

Ciel's face turned pale and she stiffened in fear, pointing behind Hiroto. Hiroto turned and felt sick with what he saw.

A skeleton stood before them, a little unnaturally tall with four arms, the extra two arms being located beneath the other shoulders. It grasped scimitars in all of its hands, blood smeared on the blades, in a tight grip. It stared blankly at them, unable to communicate fear, anger, or hatred.

"Yua," Hiroto said between his closed lips, "take care of Ciel, okay?"

Omega pulled out his saber, ready to clash with this unnatural fiend of the grave.

The skeleton studied them for a moment and then rushed in, scimitars flashing wildly through the air.

Omega lunged towards it, aiming his sword right at its chest. The skeleton realized the danger and shifted Omega's blade away, hitting him across the face with its other scimitar.

Omega stumbled, wondering what had happened. He felt across his face. It had hit him. It had even torn some of his metal away. A shot rang through the air, grabbing Omega's attention.

The skeleton raced towards Hiroto, some of its ribs missing. Hiroto blocked the first of the skeleton's scimitars, ducked, and lunged towards the skeleton's hips, making it bowl over his back. Recon fired again, hitting the skeleton in the head, but it stood up again, facing Ciel.

"Ciel!" Omega yelled, running towards the skeleton.

The skeleton turned and blocked Omega's sword, stabbing him with its other scimitar.

"No!" Hiroto yelled, flying through the air to deliver a flying kick to the skeleton's head.

The skeleton ducked, and as Hiroto passed overhead, it slashed his back with another of its scimitars.

Recon hit the skeleton again, partially severing its neck.

Odin rushed in as Omega pulled himself off the skeleton's sword, carrying a little microchip. He jumped into the air, muttering some strange words that sounded more like an incantation than a sentence. The skeleton struck at Odin, but an invisible field seemed to protect Odin as he jammed his feet into the skeleton's shoulders, putting the microchip on the skeleton's forehead. Odin launched off the skeleton, making it fall to the ground.

"Holy word!" Odin yelled, pulling out a strange trinket that had a hand holding a lightning bolt with a blade protruding from it.

The trinket shined with light and the same symbol appeared onto the skeleton's head. The skeleton writhed in pain, as if it was burning.

Odin walked calmly to it.

"Unholy demon of Orcus, I rebuke you with the power of Kord."

The skeleton gave a scream, then shattered away into dust, its scimitars dropping to the ground.

"What was that?" Hiroto asked in shock.

"A skeleton," Odin said gravely. "The first creature, as far as I know, from the Shadowfell to enter this world again."

Laughter sounded through the room, coming from the command room. Hiroto rushed towards it and found Alpha on the screen, laughing his head off.

"That's not the last of my attacks!" Alpha said. "I have more where that came from!"

"Alpha!" Hiroto yelled. "I hate you!"

"Oh, come now, Hiroto," Alpha said, flicking a tear from his laughter away, "where's your sense of fun?"

"You could have killed someone with that thing!" Hiroto yelled angrily.

"Too late," Odin said sadly from the doorway.

Hiroto turned. Odin was holding one of the bloody scimitar blades.

"Oh, no," Hiroto said, losing some of the color from his face.

"Everyone in Neo Arcadia will be killed by the creatures that I have," Alpha said, "if Omega doesn't get those parts for me."

"Then I'm going with him!" Haruto said, walking over to stand next to Hiroto.

Haruto had short blackish-brown hair and black eyes. He was wearing his tattered brown cloak, black pants with a cyan dragon on the side of one pant leg, and a black vest. He was well rounded, able to be extremely quick but strong. He had a strong face that was tinted with a little bit of sorrow.

"No, Haruto," Alpha said, wiggling his finger in reproach. "Omega goes alone."

Hiroto looked down and sighed. "What can we do, Haruto?" He looked back at Alpha. "Omega's on his way."

"Good!" Alpha said.

"We just need to get him repaired."

"Aww," Alpha said mockingly, "did little Omega get hurt while fighting my monster?"

"I'm ready," Omega said, leaning on the doorframe in a casual manner.

"But you've not been repaired yet!" Hiroto exclaimed.

"Actually, Odin already finished," Omega said, pointing behind him at Odin.

Odin stood sheepishly. "Okay, so I used a divine spell, what's the deal?"


	18. Acquaintance

Omega got to the top of a tall hill. There was the abandoned building. About half a day's journey and he'd be there.

Omega decided to rest for a little bit, just long enough to catch his breath. Omega was not quite sure what to think of the scenery. Being a robot of destruction all of his life, he really didn't know what to think of it.

He got up and started his trek down the hill, making sure that none of the maverick tribes were looking at him. The tribes were the main reason that the building was abandoned. The building was attacked in Dr. Weil's time so nothing was done to stop the tribes.

There was a faint rustling in a bush nearby, causing Omega to stop and put his hand on his saber. He drew it without activating it and started to walk again. A sudden movement indicated that whoever was in the bush had quickly moved to a tree. Omega started to walk to the tree before the thing had moved to another bush. Omega pulled out his gun and fired a few shots into the bush and ran to it, saber activated.

"YAAHHHH!" something yelled, throwing itself at him.

Omega placed his sword in front of him, but the figure spun over it and knocked Omega to the ground as it landed a few feet behind him.

"Omega, you're getting old," the figure said.

"Wait a minute," Omega said. "Leviathan?"

Leviathan was dusting herself off, apparently disappointed.

"Of course! Who did you think it was?" she retorted.

Omega jumped to his feet and faced Fairy Leviathan.

"You're supposed to be dead," Omega said flatly.

"How come?" Fairy Leviathan asked.

"Your destroyed body was proof of it!"

"Oh," she said, placing her finger to her lower lip and then said, "Well, I'm alive." giggling a little bit.

"What're you doing here anyway?" Omega asked.

"Just roaming around. Not much to do anymore, is there?" she asked.

Omega scoffed and went on his way.

"Hey! Wait!" Leviathan yelled, running to catch up.

Omega turned and angrily said, "Why are you even associating with me? You hate me!"

Leviathan laughed and said, "Don't be ridiculous! I've heard of you not hitting Ciel because you like her! I figure you wouldn't do the same to me if you begin to like me!"

Omega growled and turned around. "Air heads," he said quietly. "I can't stand them!"

Leviathan caught up with him and asked, "So what're you doing."

"Go home, Leviathan," he growled.

"No way!" Leviathan exclaimed. "I'm coming with you to do whatever you're doing!"

"Why are you interested in what I'm doing anyway?" Omega said, annoyed.

"I've heard what's been going on and I like an adventure!" she replied ecstatically. "So I figured that you're doing something fun and that I would tag along!"

"Get lost," Omega said, quickening his pace.

Omega kept walking for a little bit and then turned back. Leviathan was holding her arm and had a hurt expression on her face, holding her halberd in her left hand.

Omega sighed in frustration and said, "All right, you can come. Just don't be annoying!"

"Yay!" Leviathan exclaimed, hurrying over to Omega. "We're going to have a fun time, Omega! You'll see! I'll be awesome!"

"Well, you can be awesome by being quiet!" Omega yelled.

Leviathan looked at him with a downcast face. "But," she said sadly, "being quiet isn't fun."

Omega groaned. "Fine, you can talk, just be quieter than usual. This may be a dangerous time to talk normally."

"Okay, Omega," she whispered, a big grin on her face, "I'll be quiet, just for you!"

Omega sighed again. "What have I gotten myself into?" he thought to himself.

* * *

><p>Tell me how I'm doing, please!<p> 


	19. The Abandoned Building

Omega walked in, unsure of what was in the abandoned building.

"Omega," Leviathan whimpered, clutching his arm, "I'm scared."

"Come on, Leviathan," Omega said. "The worst thing that can be in here is a skeleton with four arms," Leviathan stiffened, "murderous tribal members," Levithan relaxed a little, "and a monster that kills people with its gaze."

Leviathan stopped, all of the color gone from her face.

"What's the matter?" Omega sneered, looking back at her. "Scared?"

"Who, me?" Leviathan asked, trying to make her composure look as natural as possible.

Omega walked on, wondering what Alpha wanted.

"Alpha," Omega said into his comlink, "what do you want from here?"

"Just ten microchips. That's all," was Alpha's reply.

Omega turned his comlink off, not wanting Alpha to distract him when he was in a battle.

The building's beams were partially rusted, its floors were in dire need of dusting, and some parts were scattered right by the wall and in corners. It was made mostly of steel, wood, and tile. The tile was badly cracked, breaking even more when trod upon.

Omega pulled out his saber, just in case one of the maverick tribes lived in here. He walked carefully, his eyes scanning for anything that was hostile. They came to a three way intersection and stopped.

"Where should we go?" Leviathan asked.

"Let's go this way," Omega said, pointing to the left.

"I think we should go the other way," Leviathan said, pointing to the right.

"My way is better," Omega said, turning to the left.

Leviathan gave a sigh and reluctantly followed.

Omega walked along, wondering where a map of this place was. He heard a snap and a groan of steel and looked up. He had no time to react before a steel beam slammed into him, smashing him through the wall, into a room. He landed on his back, dazed.

"Ahhhh!" something screamed. "Omega return!"

Omega tried to get up, but found himself to be too dizzy. He could barely recognize something coming at him with a crude sword while the others scattered to get their weapons. He maladroitly flailed his sword around, trying to scare them as he started to gain consciousness.

"Leviathan, where are you?" he said incoherently.

"Ah, pretty girl," one of them said.

"Aw, great. Leave it to Fairy Leviathan to get caught," Omega thought.

"You," one of them said, an average sized reploid that had an elegant energy sword in his hand along with a rifle slung on his back. "Omega. Get up."

Omega struggled to stand up. The reploid nodded to one of his companions and it went over to Omega, still groggy from the beam and hit Omega's saber away. Others followed, disarming him of his gun and other sword. Omega was almost conscious and was able to see that Leviathan had a sword over her throat by one of the reploids.

"Omega," the average sized reploid, the leader, as Omega concluded, said. "I know of your battle prowess, but do you think you can fight our mighty Genadritch?"

"Sure, shouldn't be hard at all," Omega replied.

"The prize," the leader said, "is the life of the girl. If you win, she comes back to you. If you lose, she dies."

Omega thought for a little bit. "Is it really worth saving Leviathan's life?"

"Omega, what're you thinking?" Leviathan asked, tension in her voice.

"Nothing," he said and turned to the leader. "All right, I'll fight him. Where is he?"

"Follow me," the leader said, walking towards a door that was behind him.

Behind the door, there was a tunnel that lead down. The tunnel was walked in a lot, but it got muddy as they got further down.

"I think we're under the ground now, Leviathan," Omega commented.

"I don't care!" she said fierily. "Just win!"

"Genadritch should be a pushover," Omega said, dismissing Leviathan's fear.

"He's through this door," the leader said when they had reached the end of the tunnel.

Omega walked towards the door.

"My weapons?" he asked.

"They will be given to you before you fight," the leader reassured.

Omega opened the door into a large, circular arena, the ceiling reaching twenty feet high and the diameter was about sixty feet long, and found a reploid in the middle of the arena that looked to be seventeen years old with a brown cape. He had brown gloves that had glowing blueish-green, red, blue, and yellow lines on them. He sat, drawing in the ground, not looking at Omega.

"There are a couple of rules," the boy said, continuing to draw on the ground. "You may not use your armed phenomenon. If you do, your companion will be executed speedily, and I will be forced to use _my_ armed phenomenon."

The boy looked up, showing his bluish-green eyes and his mild face.

"I know who is with you, and I must say, I am sorry for her," he said. "I lost my army-dad when I was in the elf wars." he stood up and started to walk towards Omega, his face showing extreme anger. "He was killed by you, Omega. His name was Agamari." He half clenched his fists. "How could you do such a thing?" he said forlornly. "You have the same body as Zero, yet you are not Zero at all. You're only a copy!"

Omega grabbed the boy's neck, but recoiled, his hand burning as if it were on fire.

"The battle," the boy said, "has not begun yet. You may not harm me, nor I you."

A reploid came up to them, holding Omega's weapons, a double sword, a spear, and a dagger.

"Choose one weapon," the boy said. "You better hope you choose well."

Omega grabbed his sword, clutching it with a tight grip. The boy grabbed his double sword and started to walk to the other end of the arena.

"The battle begins now," he said before he had reached the end.

Omega dashed along the ground, quickly closing the distance between him and the boy, giving a powerful slash to the waist.

The boy turned and swung his blade, deflecting Omega's saber.

"That all you got?" the boy chuckled.

Omega jumped into the air and spun, making his blade spin around him. The boy dodged to the side and gave a quick slash, Omega barely blocked as he landed on the ground. Omega saw something long drop from the ceiling. The object fell until it stuck into the ground on the far side of the arena.

Omega shoved the boy's sword away and punched the boy in the face, causing the boy to stumble. Omega ran and slashed, making a cut in the boy's shoulder as the boy tried to dodge. The boy retaliated with a hit to Omega's head with the handle of his double sword, jarring Omega's senses. He then followed by kicking Omega in the ribs that sent Omega to the ground, making a little distance between them.

Omega jumped up and heard something drop behind him. He slowly backed towards it while keeping his eyes on the boy, who was slowly advancing. Out of the corner of his eye, Omega could see his gun. He grabbed it and fired at the boy who was dashing towards him. The boy made a quick, sideways maneuver, the bullet grazing the side of his head.

Omega began to charge his gun, ready to finish the battle. The boy lunged, one of his blades poised to stab Omega. Omega fired, his shot being charged. His shot completely hid the boy from his sight, and when the shot flew on, the boy was gone.

"Well, all's fair in war," Omega said.

A soft thump on the ground alerted Omega and he spun around. The boy had just landed on the ground, making him vulnerable. Omega ran across the space that separated the two, making a wide slash with his saber. Omega hit the boy's side, but it didn't go in all the way. The boy calmly stood up and turned his head to look at Omega as much as he could.

"Oh," he jeered, "didn't you know that I have Genasi data in me?"

"You too?" Omega yelled, firing at the boy.

The boy flew into the air, almost touching the ceiling. He dropped down, breaking his fall before he crashed into the ground, next to the long object on the far side of the arena. He picked it up and threw it at Omega.

The object flew with lightning speed, barely giving Omega time to react. Omega fired two charge shots and ran across the battlefield. The boy flew into the air again and started to come down to intercept Omega. Omega stopped running and brought his sword up to defend himself. When they were a few yards away from each other, the boy ready to lash out at Omega, Omega suddenly jumped and made a clean, deep cut in the boy's front. The boy landed on the ground in a heap, silently groaning.

Omega landed and started to walk towards the boy. "You're a cheater," he said.

"At least I'm not a killer," the boy rasped, standing up unsteadily, his back towards Omega, "and at least I've got something to live for."

"And what's that?" Omega asked, turning his blade off and crossing his arms.

"I was actually offered to ask a girl on a date. In a couple of years, since she wasn't old enough yet," the boy said.

"What girl?" Omega said, feeling the desire to kill the boy now.

"I think her parents said her name was," the boy said, but struggled to remember the girl's name, "Yua?"

Omega stood, shocked, for a moment. "Did you say Yua?" he asked.

"Yeah," the boy said, turning to face Omega.

"Do–do you know Yua?" the boy asked slowly. "Tell me where she is!"

"Nope," Omega said, walking towards the door where he had entered.

"Omega! You'll regret it if you don't tell me!" the boy shouted.

"Too bad!" Omega said, loving every single bit of this torture.

Something slammed into the ground behind him, throwing him about 8 yards. Omega fell to the ground, wondering what had happened. He looked back and noticed that the boy was about twice his usual height with cyan eyes, cyan streaks, purple skin, and strange black imprints on his skin.

"Oh, great," Omega muttered, slamming the ground with his fist. "I hate armed phenomenons."

Omega jumped up, ready to fight, but the leader called through an intercom system.

"Genadritch! You are breaking the rules!"

Genadritch sighed out of frustration and changed to his normal form. Omega turned and walked away. He went through the door where Leviathan was waiting for him.

"Omega!" she said. "You're so strong! I love you!"

Omega grunted and walked to the leader with Leviathan following him.

"What is it?" the leader asked grimly.

"I need ten microchips," Omega replied.

"Find it yourself," the leader said.

Omega turned and walked towards the exit. Some of the tribe that was in the room that Omega crashed through looked at them with a bloodthirsty look, but left them alone. Omega turned down the hall and eventually found a map. He located the supply room and rummaged through the few boxes that were in there that still had stuff in it. He found seven microchips, but no more.

"No!" Omega whispered. "No! Alpha's going to kill me!"

Leviathan turned to face the door.

"Omega, could we leave soon? I don't like being around these tribes," she said worriedly.

Omega got up, worried about what was going to happen when he got to Alpha. They navigated their way out of the building and headed towards the general direction of Neo Arcadia.

"We're not going to be able to make it out of the land of these tribes before nightfall, Leviathan. You still want to hang around me?" Omega asked lifelessly.

"Yep!" Leviathan responded enthusiastically.

"There goes my chance to get rid of her," Omega thought.

They walked on until night came, and they were in a small forest.

"Can we stop now?" Leviathan whined. "My legs are tired."

Omega looked around him.

"All right," he said, walking towards a tree. "You sleep wherever you want, I'll take first watch."

Leviathan climbed into a tree, broke a few thick branches with the help of her halberd, and laid them parallel to two other strong branches. She lay down and quickly fell asleep. Omega climbed up another tree and sat on a branch, leaning on the trunk to make sure he wouldn't easily fall if he fell asleep accidentally, keeping watch to make sure they weren't ambushed. Omega tried to stay awake, but he was running low on energy. His vision faded in and out.

_Ciel stood in a beautiful garden. Omega stood on the far end, grinning sheepishly. Ciel picked a rose and motioned for Omega to come to her. He hesitated, but ran towards her. Something jumped in between them and made a thrust with its weapon at Omega's head, but he dodged to the side._

Omega woke up suddenly and noticed that he was falling from the tree and latched on. He looked up and saw something floating in the air. It seemed more wraithlike than human, and its eyes glowed with a fiery light. Omega pulled out his pistol and fired at it, grazing its right hip as it flew to the side. Omega fired a barrage, hitting it most of the time as it dodged back and forth. Omega positioned himself on the tree so that his back was almost facing the strange creature and jumped, pulling out his saber and making a wild flurry of attacks. The creature was struck several times and fell to the ground. Omega landed next to it and cut into the creatures face as he sliced at it. The creature gave a yelp and rolled away. It stood up, the fire glowing in its eyes even more. Omega ran at it and it tried to dodge, but stopped suddenly, and Omega cut all the way through it. It yelled in pain, its legs powerlessly crumpling beneath it.

"All's I want is to see Yua!" it exclaimed.

"Genadritch!" Omega yelled furiously and ran towards him, ready to deal another blow.

"Please!" Genadritch said piteously. "I just want to see her!"

Omega swung his sword overhead and brought it down, but something hit him on the side of the head, throwing him off balance. He turned to see his new attacker. Leviathan's eyes were red instead of their usual blue, startling Omega as she hit him on the side of the chin with the blunt end of her halberd, making him stumble. He tried to recover his senses, but soon found that Leviathan stabbed him in the stomach.

"Leviathan," he said agonizingly, "what's going on?"

"I work for Alpha," she said shortly, twisting her halberd slowly.

Omega writhed from this torture, Leviathan smiling cruelly. She pulled the halberd out sharply, letting Omega fall to his hands and knees. Omega's vision faded in and out.

"_How many times must I go through this?"_ he asked himself before blackness overtook him.

* * *

><p>Any comments about making Omega more like himself or am I doing good?<p> 


	20. The Creation of Hakai

"Thank goodness for this chip of Dr. Weil's or I'd never be done in this short time!" Alpha said in the command room of the Resistance Base. "Thank goodness that this base has parts that I can use," he said, chuckling.

His new creation, the reploid with the cyan phoenix was done. All the wiring complete, even the programming.

"You need a name," Alpha said, putting his hand on his chin. "Your name will be," he paused, "Hakai. Now, the moment of truth."

Alpha turned Hakai on and waited for his equipment to all be recognized. Hakai opened his eyes and sat up in his capsule.

"_Kill!"_ was Hakai's instant thought.

"Ah, Hakai! You are my great– " Alpha began before dodging Hakai as he flew through the air.

Alpha faced Hakai as Hakai landed on the ground. Alpha lunged, but was suddenly struck from all sides and collapsed to the ground in a heap.

Shocked, he looked up at his creation.

"Hakai," he said weakly. "You were supposed to obey me!"

"I am not your servant," Hakai replied, his voice resembling an eighteen year old's voice. "I am destruction's embodiment. I am Hakai!" He kicked Alpha away and walked out the door.

"_Ha, ha, Alpha! You have fallen for my trick!" _Dr. Weil said to Alpha.

"Dr. Weil? It was you that made Hakai insane?" Alpha raged.

"_That is what happens when you have another entity in your mind! It can control you!"_

Alpha reached into his tool belt and pulled out his screwdriver.

"This is over, Weil. I'm finished with you!" Alpha said.

"_No, you cannot do it Alpha. I will not let you."_

Alpha's hand fell limply to the ground.

"No," Alpha said, summoning all of his willpower, "I can defeat you. You are only data."

Alpha slowly raised his hand and started to unscrew the panel in the back of his head.

"_You cannot defeat me all the way, Alpha. You have a large part of my memory and I've been with you too long."_

"I doubt that," Alpha replied, sneering.

He grabbed the chip and pulled it out. Instantly, the force holding his hand back was gone, but he felt weak, barely able to hold himself up.

"Hakai," Alpha said dismally, "why have you hurt me like this?"

"_Because I had you program him like that, Alpha."_

"You," Alpha stiffened. "You're still here?"

"_I told you, Alpha. You have a large part of my memory and I've been with you too long."_

Alpha lay on the floor, unable to stand up. A soldier came through the door, saw Alpha, and left.

"_Oh, come on,"_ Alpha thought. _"Help me!"_

Then the thought struck him. _"Maybe they might kill me now that I'm helpless. Gotta get out of here!"_

Alpha tried to get up, but fell weakly to the ground.

Ten soldiers came through the door, guns pointed at him.

"Let's kill him now!" one of them said.

"_Troll hide,"_ Alpha thought and his armor changed to green, streaks of green running through his hair.

"Get him!" another soldier yelled.

Alpha quickly positioned his foot underneath him and pushed himself through the air, regaining enough strength from his partial troll form. The soldiers fired a burst at where Alpha was and readjusted their aim. Alpha jumped out the window, getting shot in the back a couple of times.

Alpha fell, too groggy from the pain to grab onto the wall of the Resistance base. He plummeted until he had regained enough sense to grab onto the wall. Unfortunately, he had only about a story left to grab onto. He slide down the wall, smashing into the ground.

"_No,"_ he thought as blackness started to fill his vision, _"this can't be the end of me. It just can't."_

"Over there!" a soldier said.

Alpha stood up clumsily and started to run for Neo Arcadia, tripping a lot, but getting back up again.


	21. Captured

Omega woke with a start.

"Oh," he groaned, blocking the sun with his hand, "what just happened?"

A fire was crackling and Omega looked over to it. Genadritch sat next to it, cooking something on it. Omega whipped out his saber and stood, ready to kill him again.

"Leave me alone," Genadritch softly said.

Omega swung anyway, and Genadritch shot through the air over the fire.

"I said leave me alone!" Genadritch raged.

Omega rushed at Genadritch, but Genadritch launched a fireball that Omega failed to dodge and he got caught in a fierce fire storm, making him back away and try to put himself out. Genadritch stood angrily with a hot dog that he was roasting on a stick.

"If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't be alive!" Genadritch yelled.

"How so?" Omega asked as he was in a fighting stance.

"I healed you!"

"Thanks," Omega said coldly. "Now hold still!"

Omega pulled out his pistol and fired at Genadritch as both of them moved around. Omega charged his gun and jumped high into the air. Genadritch stopped and launched himself towards Omega as Omega fired two charge shots and dashed in the air to where Genadritch had flung himself to avoid the shots.

Omega landed a solid blow, knocking Genadritch to the ground.

"What's wrong with you?" Genadritch asked, his chest sparking. "Is it that bad that I want to see Yua?"

Omega walked towards Genadritch, he held his saber in a tight grip. He raised his sword for a killing blow as Genadritch resigned himself to his fate, but remembered when he attacked Ciel at the dance. Omega stopped for a moment and turned off his saber. He turned around and started to walk towards Neo Arcadia's general direction.

"You can follow me if you want," Omega said, "but that doesn't mean I have to like you following me."

Genadritch warily got up, his chest fixing itself. He kept his distance, pulling out his double sword just in case Omega tried to attack him again.

"So, Genadritch," Omega began a few minutes later, "how did you fix me and yourself?"

Genadritch did not reply. Omega shrugged his shoulders and walked on, he got to the top of a hill and looked around him.

"Where am I?" he silently asked himself. "None of this looks familiar."

Below him, a valley of forest lay.

"I must have gone past 30 degrees," he whispered. "No!"

"Lost?" Genadritch asked flatly.

"I'm not lost!" Omega retorted. "I know perfectly where we are!"

"You mean that you know we're here?"

Omega growled and started down the descent of the hill. They walked into the forest, Omega wondering how he would get back to Ciel. They continued for about two hours when Genadritch asked, "Yeah, you're lost, aren't you?"

Omega turned around with a snarl, and something struck him on the back of the head. He turned around and got smacked in the face by a club while its wielder dropped from a tree.

"Omega!" Genadritch yelled.

Omega turned around and saw little kids standing on Genadritch's shoulders, beating his head with clubs as he flailed his arms around. Omega felt something drop on his shoulder and he lifted his arm, striking it with the back of his hand. Abruptly, rocks started to pelt him from all sides from behind the trees. He turned and grabbed his saber, its pink glow emanating from the emitter. He ran towards the closest opponent, ignoring the other rocks. He rounded the tree and saw a little kid running towards another tree. He pulled out his gun and fired, narrowly missing the kid's head.

"Why are kids attacking us?" he wondered.

"Let's get him!" one of them yelled.

A loud battle cry ensued and about fifteen kids rushed out at him with their clubs. Genadritch fired some fireballs at them, but they nimbly dodged and jumped, latching onto him and hitting him furiously. Omega rushed to Genadritch when something latched onto his legs, restricting them from moving. Omega fell to the ground and two of the kids got on top of him, clubbing his helmet.

"I've got his legs! He can't do anything now!" the kid holding his legs yelled.

"Oh, can't I?" Omega replied smugly, turning his head to partially face them.

Omega changed to his knight form, the kids dropping off his legs and running away. Omega struck at some of the kids, almost getting one of them. A little girl with white hair started to sprightly run up his leg, covering a great amount of distance. Omega lashed at her with his free hand, but she jumped a great distance, barely avoiding his hand. She ran at his neck and slashed it with her two scimitars. Omega felt a rush of pain. The two blows had done a great amount of damage, more than they should have. The girl crawled inside the hole that she had formed. Omega commenced to hit his chest, out of fright more than good sense. He could feel the girl cutting at one of the wires. He pounded harder, scared of what would happen to him should the girl cut his power cable. Omega flinched in pain, gradually returning to his normal size. The girl got out of the hole before it closed off and sat on his shoulder. Omega tried to swat her off his shoulder while he was still somewhat large, but she did a back flip and grabbed onto his shoulder blade. He shrank down to his normal size, the other kids gathering around him with drawn clubs. Genadritch was unconscious on the ground. The girl sat on his shoulder again, looking very smug. Some plants suddenly erupted and grabbed Omega's sabers and gun.

"Hi!" the girl said. "My name that my enemies know me by is Winter! My friends call me that too! What's your name?"

Omega grunted, ashamed of being defeated by a kid. Winter started to poke him in the neck.

"Hey! What's your name?" she asked, grinning from ear to ear.

Omega growled, looking out of the corner of his eye at her.

"I'm gonna call you... Carl!" she exclaimed.

"It's Omega," Omega shortly replied.

"Omega?" she said. "That's a stinky name! Carl is a better name!"

"It's Omega!" Omega yelled.

Winter started to laugh hysterically. "I like Carl!"

Winter popped off his shoulder and drew her scimitars.

"You do realize you were beaten by a woman, right?" she asked.

Omega ran at her, ready to punch her, but the other kids tripped him. Winter ran a little distance, turned, and stuck her tongue out at him.

"Take him to Watch-a-nok-a-luga!" Winter exclaimed.

Two strong kids came up to Omega and commenced to tie up his hands and ankles with lots of rope as the others stood with spears ready. After they were done tying him up, they blindfolded him and gagged him. Soon, Omega felt a powerful blow on his head and dropped out of consciousness.


	22. Return

Alpha walked in to the Assassin's base after a half day of walking. The wounds that he had taken had healed as he walked. He was wary of Recon as he came in. Recon normally patrolled the base, but usually not the basement, on the lookout for policemen that might come in. Alpha moved into the basement and commenced to move the boxes to block the entrance.

"Man!" he thought. "They must have put something in these boxes!"

He thumped the side of the box. Yes, it was not hollow. He thumped the first box and the third. They had stuff in them. Alpha grinned.

He moved the last box close to the second box and paused to listen. Nothing. Alpha grinned again.

"I won't fight against them, but I'm not going to be friends with them!" he said quietly to himself.

He started to heave the second box onto the first box, but was not able to. He changed into his troll hide form to give him some more strength to lift the second box onto the first. He then lifted the third after a short rest. The entrance was not tall enough to have three boxes block it, so there was a gap that one of the Assassins could half crawl through. Alpha dragged the box into the center of the room and opened it. His eyes glittered with glee. He pulled out some of the parts.

"I might be able to build a reploid with this!" he said out loud.

He opened the other boxes, his glee increasing with each box. He began to draw on the floor the design of his new reploid, but scrapped it and started on another design. Some steps made him stop and perk his ears. The steps were coming towards the basement. Alpha hurriedly assembled a taser and crept to the side of the entrance. The steps stopped before they reached the descent of the stairs into the basement. They then turned and started to run. Alpha ran to his design and wiped it out, not wanting them to find out what he had wanted to design should he not be able to come out of this alive. He ran back to the side of the entrance and stood there for, what seemed to him to be, forever. A group was descending down the stairs and arrived at the stairs of the basement. One of them started to walk down the stairs, barely audible. It jumped onto the boxes and pulled itself up. Alpha saw that it was Recon. Alpha whipped around and jammed his taser into Recon's face. Recon yelled in pain, putting his hand over his eyes and retreating. Alpha hooked his taser into his arm and charged it, ready for the next person. Something flew through the entrance and Alpha turned in alarm.

"Oh, it's you," Alpha said dryly.

Haruto lunged at Alpha, katana drawn as he yelled, "It's Alpha!"

Alpha rolled as Haruto flew over him. He got back up and looked back to the entrance. Thor was getting in. Alpha ran to Haruto, ignoring Thor for now, and thrust out his taser, Haruto dodging with unusual speed. A shuriken brushed against Alpha's arms, but Alpha was fully aware that Thor had gotten through the entrance. Alpha rushed towards Thor and Thor got in a fighting stance. Alpha lunged at Thor, but Thor smashed his right hand into Alpha's chest, Alpha's taser narrowly missing Thor as Thor turned. Electricity spread across Alpha's chest, making Alpha go limp for a little, his taser dropping a short distance from him. Alpha lay on the ground for a short time, face contorted in pain. A blade was placed across his neck and he calmed down.

"Oh. Hey, Haruto. How ya doin'?" Alpha asked, making an apprehensive grin.

Hiroto dropped from the boxes into the room, walking sternly towards Alpha. He had a rifle slung over his back and was wearing an Elf Wars army uniform. Hiroto stared at Alpha sternly as Alpha lay there on the ground.

"Uh, hey, Hiroto," Alpha said uneasily. "You may be wondering what I'm doing here."

"Yeah," Hiroto said, "but I'm just going to execute you right now. Haruto," Hiroto said, nodding to Haruto and putting his foot on Alpha's chest.

Alpha's eyes widened as Haruto brought his sword up to decapitate him. As the blade was coming down, Alpha remembered something.

"_Phane form!"_ he thought, and instantly everything slowed down. Darkness swirled around him.

He pushed Hiroto's foot away and got up. Everything was moving slowly, but he could tell that Haruto was already reacting to Alpha's movement. He hit Haruto in the face, grabbed him by his collar, and threw him out the entrance. He then proceeded to grab Yua, recognizing her as a threat if she got angry enough, but paused briefly, confused by seeing two Yuas. Composing himself, he threw both Yuas out quickly, one after the other. He then threw Hiroto and Odin out, but struggled against throwing Thor out. He dismissed Thor for now and clumsily pulled out some beams from a box and shot holes in the ceiling where the threshold of the basement's entrance was and in the floor, directly beneath the holes in the ceiling. He jammed the beams into the holes and fused them together so that it made a strong barrier. He whirled around, grabbed his taser, and jammed it into Thor's chest. The electricity spread fairly quick and Thor stumbled backwards. Alpha charged his taser again and shocked Thor as he was falling. Alpha then began to choke Thor. It seemed to take a long time for Thor to get knocked out, then Alpha remembered that he was still in Phane form. He turned it off and immediately Thor's hands flew to Alpha's neck, strangling him with a crushing force.

"_Whoops! I forgot about that,"_ he thought, gasping for breath.

He changed into his troll form as his vision began to turn black and started to slowly pry Thor's hands off his neck. Alpha's vision started to clear up and he was more able to comprehend what was happening around him. Alpha tore Thor's overwhelming hands off of his neck and stood, somewhat gasping for breath. Thor leapt up and threw himself at Alpha, his left hand clenched. Alpha jumped to the side as Thor flew by. Alpha spun around and kicked through the air as Thor was turning around. Alpha smashed his foot into Thor's face, knocking Thor over. Alpha hit the wall on his feet, sending a sharp pain through him. He landed on the ground on his hands and got back onto his feet as Thor slammed his left fist into Alpha's back. A thunderous roar sounded, deafening Alpha as he slammed into the wall, knocking the breath out of his lungs. He fell to the ground in a heap, pain coursing through his nerves. Thor heavily walked up to him as Alpha pulled himself into a tight ball. Thor scooped him up and hit him heavily in the face. Alpha's senses reeled as he tried to tear himself away from Thor's strong grasp. Thor started to yell something, but Alpha couldn't understand what he was saying. As Alpha gathered his senses, an explosion blew his barrier apart and the rest of the Assassins rushed in, darkness forming in front of Hiroto. Odin seemed somewhat unnatural. It seemed like his "flesh" was pulled more tightly across his frame than usual. Alpha's vision started to fade, and he desperately wriggled in Thor's tight grasp. Thor's grasp didn't fail and he punched Alpha in the stomach.

"I can't go like this!" he desperately thought. "I need to create Copy X!"

"Wait!" he tried to choke out. "Wait!"

Hiroto stood next to Thor while the Assassins encircled Alpha.

"Let's hear what the worm has to say, Thor," Hiroto sighed.

Thor let go of Alpha and Alpha crashed to the ground, coughing and hacking and groping on the ground.

"I..I..." Alpha stammered.

"Spit it out!" Hiroto yelled, the blackness still swirling around him, his hand reaching for his saber that was on his back.

"I created a new robot," Alpha said, still trying to regain his breath. "I think you damaged my breathing mechanism!"

"Good, I hope you die," Recon said coldly.

"What about this new robot?" Hiroto growled.

"It attacked me," Alpha said. "I've imbued it with several monster's data."

Recon chuckled. "We can handle it."

"You don't understand!" Alpha said, his hand reaching out at Hiroto. "I've imbued it with the data from a Terrasque! He can turn invisible from data that I gathered from an Assassin Devil! He has other monsters' data too!" Alpha looked around in despair. "You have to let me live!"

Recon cocked his eye brow. "Invisible, eh?" He turned to Hiroto. "What do you think?"

Hiroto thought for a moment. "How did you get to the Terrasque, Alpha?"

Alpha's face dropped. "When I was caught by Dr. Weil, he made sure that I would follow him. After that, he sent me on a mission to some place that he was curious about. A hole in the ground that had a portal brought me to a strange world, filled with monsters."

"The Far Realm," Odin said, nodding his head.

"Maybe," Alpha replied, "but my presence was not yet acknowledged, as I had come through a back way. The Terrasque was asleep in the back, making it really easy for me to snag his data. It was a long process, so I gathered other monsters' data while I waited."

Alpha pulled out one of the monster microchips. "I developed these when I was with Odin. They were made to copy data from fighting beings, robot or human. I decided to use it on a monster as well."

Recon snatched the microchip away and eyed it. "Does this have data on it?"

"Yes," Alpha admitted, "but I don't know how powerful that thing is. I took it from a Pit Fiend and I'm uncertain if a mere mortal can handle the power."

Odin grunted and turned to Recon. "It may be best to leave that chip alone, but I'm curious, Alpha," he said, turning his attention to Alpha, "what about the Assassin Devil? Isn't it too powerful for mere mortals?"

Alpha thought for a bit, remembering that Odin knew monster lore as well. "No," he replied, lying between his teeth, "it is not. The Assassin Devil is not a lord of the Devils. Only an assassin."

Alpha waited tensely for a moment, wondering if Odin would detect his lie, but Odin just said slowly, "Huh. Okay."

"Who is worthy to have it then?" Thor asked.

"None of us in here," Alpha replied. "Only one with enough power to control it."

"We can wait until Omega comes back!" the copy Yua said.

Hiroto coughed. "I don't know if we want to trust him with that much power yet, 2nd Yua."

"Look," Alpha said, still wheezing a little bit from Thor's punch, "if you let me stay down here, I won't bother you, but you can't bother me."

"Right, Alpha," Haruto said suspiciously, "and as soon as you gain enough power, you're going to kill us."

"No," Alpha said slowly. "I'll act like my own assassin group, but I'll work with you. I do my own thing and I'll help you some of the times."

"Or you could just join us again," Recon said flatly.

"I would rather let him work with us here in the basement than let him go off and build his own army elsewhere where our contacting and defending power becomes weak," Hiroto said, and then added, "unless you want to join us again."

"I prefer to work on my own," Alpha said coldly.

Hiroto furrowed his eyebrows. "We WILL be watching you, Alpha. You're not trusted, yet!"

Alpha got up from the ground, wheezing heavily. "I sound like an old man! Odin, fix me!"

Odin shuffled his feet. "What's the password?"

Alpha felt like punching Odin in the gut and see how he likes that, but decided against it and instead just fumed and stammered. He finally got the strength to say, "Please." though unwillingly.

Odin stopped shuffling his feet. "I guess that'll do."

He took Alpha by the shoulder and started to lead him up to his laboratory.

"Wait," Hiroto said, and Odin stopped, looking behind him. "Take all of his gear and his armed phenomenons." Alpha snarled at Hiroto, but Hiroto ignored it and added, "We'll give it back once we trust him again, and Thor?" Hiroto said, turning to Thor. "You move the boxes into the rooms upstairs. I want them guarded and locked so that Alpha can't get to them."

Alpha's eyes shone like fire and he started to move towards Hiroto and Odin grabbed him. Alpha freed himself from Odin's grasp easily, as he was still using his troll hide.

Hiroto held out his hand in a stop symbol and said, "We'll give you the parts as you need them, but we will be cautious. We may not give you all that you want."

Alpha stopped, breathing heavily because of his anger.

"Fine," he snapped and turned around, walking up the stairs with Odin.

"That memory chip must have affected you badly," Odin commented.

Alpha growled, not wanting to respond. Odin perked his ears to hear something silently saying something from the command room. Odin turned down the hallway leading to the command room, leaving Alpha confused.

"Odin? Where are you going?" he asked.

"Follow me," Odin said simply.

Alpha thought for a minute, wondering if he should run, but then thought that the Assassins would have better equipment for robots. He followed Odin into the command room and turned pale.

"No," he said, fear showing noticeably in his voice. "How did you find out how to contact this place?"

Hakai sat in the command chair at the Resistance base, staring at his fingernails, admiring a hint of robotic "blood" on his hands.

"That memory chip took all of your memories, and I was able to use them," he said, looking up at Alpha.

Odin turned to Alpha. "Is this the creation that you feared so much?"

Alpha nodded stiffly, still pale.

Hakai stood up from the chair and pulled a small thing that looked like a miniature Dr. Weil cloak and the glass that had sustained his head through the years to keep it from dying.

"Using this," Hakai said, "I have been able to gain greater power than you have." Hakai bent over and put his hand on the desk. "There is more of it, but I have not been able to extract it. It will take more advanced tools to get it." He straightened himself and cackled. "I've also managed to make another Dark Elf."

Now Odin became pale, and Alpha thought that he would faint.

Hakai cackled some more, a grin spreading on his face. "I'm glad that I've got your fear in my hands. That's good! That," he said, pointing at the Dr. Weil item, "is what this feeds on. It requires more than just fear, but luckily," he chuckled, "I know what to do. I am Hakai!"

"You won't get far!" Odin yelled.

"Oh, won't I?" Hakai said, the grin still on his face. "Lucky for you, I've managed to destroy all of the monsters that you brought here, Alpha."

Alpha's face fell, despair overcoming him. "He _is _powerful," he thought. "I had a bodak, but not even that could stop him."

"I've also managed to wipe out the soldiers in the Resistance base," Hakai said, proudly displaying the blood that was on his hand. "Some of them turned into cyber-elves, and my little item here," he said, pointing to the Dr. Weil item again, "decided to devour them. The memory chip is inside the item and gains more power if it devours cyber-elves." Hakai laughed. "I can. Hey! What's going on?"

He seemed to move around, flames barely visible.

"Odin!" he yelled, rolling on the ground, and the transmission cut out.

Odin quietly chuckled and Alpha looked at him, one eyebrow raised.

"Magic?" he asked.

"Magic," Odin confirmed. "Let's tell Hiroto."

Alpha paused. "Yeah."

On their way down, Alpha said, "Odin?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't care what happens to me. I just want to defeat Hakai." they paused on the stairs to the basement. "I'll join you if you want."

Odin laid his hand on Alpha's shoulder. "That may be, but we need to be able to trust you again."

"Okay," Alpha said a little glumly.

Hiroto was looking at 1st Yua with his hand on his chin when they arrived.

"Hiroto," Odin said gravely, "we've got a problem."

"What is it?" Hiroto asked, turning to look at Odin.

"Hakai, Alpha's robot, has killed all of the Resistance soldiers."

Hiroto groaned and put his head in his hand.

"There's more," Odin continued. "He's also recreated a dark elf and he made something that devours cyber-elves. Every time the item, which looks kind of like Dr. Weil's special regenerating glass and his cloak, devours a cyber-elf, it gets stronger."

"How is this possible?" Hiroto asked, looking up at Odin. "Then again, nothing here makes sense. Take a look at Yua," he said, motioning towards her and walking around her. "She's already grown about an inch and her ears are a little bit pointy."

Odin came up to Yua and took a careful look at her ears. "Hmm, looks like she has elven data inside that microchip. That's why she's changing." Odin put his hand in his chin. "It's interesting that she doesn't have Phane-like features since that's her armed phenomenon."

"Why don't I change yet?" 2nd Yua whined.

"Probably because you haven't used your armed phenomenon," Odin said.

"But now she's taller than I am!"

"Maybe you should use your armed phenomenon," Odin sighed.

2nd Yua looked around her and said, "Well, I don't want to use it when you all are here!"

Thor gave a deep chuckle. "When do I get some data?"

Odin chuckled and looked at Hiroto. "Shall we go on a monster killing spree?"

Hiroto grinned. "Yes, lets. We'll roam around the streets of the city, just in case Hakai sent any of the monsters here."

Odin shook his head. "Hakai killed them all."

"Oh," Hiroto said.

"What will we do with Ciel?" Recon asked.

Hiroto thought for a moment. "We'll let her and Axl free. They can either stay here or leave."

Thor nodded. "I'll free them, just in case Axl gets ideas of attacking the person that frees them."

Thor made his way up the stairs and was passing a window when a faint movement in the streets of the city caught his attention. He opened the windows and shaded his eyes from the sun. He could barely hear someone screaming. He vaulted out the window and slid down the wall. He hit the ground heavily and strained his ears. The screaming had stopped. He could hear the tramping of police Pantheons. He ran back into the building, not wanting to tangle with the police, but hid next to the window and stared out. The Pantheons had arrived at a small house and went inside. Shots started to fire, a few moments later, and then were silenced with a faint crashing of metal.

"What's going on?" Haruto asked, startling Thor.

"Something's out there," Thor replied.

Haruto strained his eyes. For a moment, he couldn't see anything. Then something stepped out of the house and Haruto's eyes widened.

"Monster," he whispered.

He flung himself out the window and landed on his hands, rolling along the ground and standing back up. The monster turned to look at him and it made his flesh crawl. The thing stood at about 9 feet in height, lacked skin, just showing the muscular structure and its ears. The eyes were yellow and all's it wore was a groin cloth.

"Hmm, armored human," it said slowly, snarling a little.

It let loose with an unnatural roar and rushed at Haruto. Unfortunately, the thing was so repulsive that Haruto froze in his place. It lifted a huge fist and was ready to fling him through the air when Thor jumped off the wall with a roar and slammed his left fist, producing a boom. The creature stumbled a little and then batted Thor away as easy as a fly. Haruto managed to get control of himself again and threw three shurikens rapidly. He lunged at the monster's neck, his katana drawn, ready to deal a critical blow. The shurikens distracted the creature for a split second, but it regained enough of its composure to deflect the katana at the last second so that Haruto flew past its neck. He landed hard on the ground, knocking the air out of his lungs and he struggled a little to get up. The monster ran towards him, its bare feet thudding heavily against the ground. Haruto positioned his foot under him and dashed out of the way and spun around, ready to begin another attack.

"What the?" he said, noticing that the creature wasn't coming back to fight him. Instead, it shifted its direction.

He squinted his eyes and realized that it was heading for Thor as he struggled to get up after the blow that the creature had just dealt.

"Thor!" Haruto yelled, stretching out his hand, realizing that now he was powerless to stop it in time.

Thor feebly tried to get out of the way but was sent flying into the air by the creature's foot. Thor fell heavily to the ground again as Haruto watched, horrified. Haruto barely realized that he was running until he was almost to the creature. The creature turned its head and stared at him and grinned.

"YAAAAHHHHHH!" Haruto yelled as he leaped trough the air, twisting and spinning as the creature flailed its arms around.

He plunged his katana deep in the creature's skull and jumped off. The creature flailed its arms some more, the last signs of its life, before it fell to the ground and became limp. Haruto dropped his katana and ran to Thor. He noticed the blood on the ground in big splotches.

"No," Haruto said quietly, fearing the worst.

He turned Thor over and couldn't believe his eyes. Thor was pale, limp, several ribs were broken, and his leg was bent at an awkward angle.

"No, no, NO!" he yelled. "How could I fail again?" he asked desperately. "First Alpha and now Thor!"

He curled up in a ball with his hands over his eyes. He could feel something. A group was gathering. He looked up and saw a small group of reploids and humans, cautiously drawing close to him. He stood up in a panic, worried that they would recognize him as an Assassin member.

"Well, whippersnapper," an old man groaned, "you've got skills."

"Thanks," Haruto said coldly while he started to pick up Thor's bulk.

He strained to pick him up, but let go, panting for breath.

"Do you need help?" a stalwart man asked.

"No," Haruto said sarcistically, still panting a little, "I'm just exercising. That's all, even though this guy is dead."

He quietly lectured himself for that comment, but the man still came to him, though awkwardly. Both of them picked the body up.

"Follow me," Haruto said.

Both of them moved into a house nearby that a family had moved out of with the crowd following them and set Thor on the ground.

"Thanks, mate, for your services."

"No problem," the man replied, moving out the door.

Haruto knelt down, mourning his companion's death and blaming himself for it. A soft knock on the door frame caught his attention and found Odin standing in the doorway.

"Need help?" Odin asked simply.

Haruto averted his head and grunted. Odin knelt down to Thor's body and Haruto put his hands underneath Thor's arms, but Odin instead pulled something out of a pouch and sprinkled it over Thor's body.

"Um, what was–" Haruto began.

"Quiet and close the door," Odin said softly and started to say something in a language that Haruto couldn't understand.

Haruto got up and closed the door, waiting for Odin to finish.

"Man, he's taking forever!" Haruto thought nine minutes later.

Odin soon finished and laid his hand on Thor's chest. Thor drew a shuddering breath and his face regained its color and his ribs immediately repaired themselves. Thor stared into Odin's smiling face.

"Odin?" he asked. "Did you just heal me?"

Odin gave no reply, but stood up and helped Thor up. Haruto stared in amazement with his jaw gaping open.

"We could be invincible with that!" he exclaimed.

Odin shook his head. "No, we can't. I have limited usage of it per day." He turned to Thor. "Let's grab that Fowlspawn Hulks data and get back to base."

* * *

><p>Any ideas to improve fights or am I doing good? Anything you'd like to see in this story? Am I doing a good job?<p> 


	23. A New Robot

Thor, Haruto, and Odin walked back to the base after Haruto had quickly snagged the Fowlspawn Hulk's data and found Hiroto anxiously awaiting their return. He walked up and embraced Thor and Haruto.

"Man, am I glad that you both are safe," he said, embracing them for a little longer and then releasing. "Sorry I couldn't help, but I sent Odin after the fight to help if you were injured."

"Yeah," Haruto said, "Doesn't really help that you're a wanted criminal."

Hiroto nodded. "Alpha got an idea and I agreed. He wants to build more Assassin members. Once we do that, we can have more members to help us with their own monster data."

Odin cocked his eyebrows. "Alpha? Why should we trust him?"

"Hold on," Hiroto said, motioning with his hand. "We'll let him and you build the robots, but you're going to program them all."

"I see," Odin said, putting his hand on his chin. "Where is Alpha, anyway?"

"He's upstairs in our 'prison chamber'," 1st Yua said.

Odin nodded. "What's our plan for defeating the monsters?"

"Well," Hiroto began, "first we're going to wait for Omega to come back. Meanwhile, we'll wander through the streets as covertly as we can, killing the monsters that come to Neo Arcadia, then we'll plan what to do."

The group nodded and Hiroto's eyes gleamed.

"Uh, Hiroto?" Odin said uneasily.

"I'll be back," Hiroto said, walking up the stairs and closing his room's door.

Odin looked at Haruto and Haruto shrugged.

"Why do you have to be taller than me?" 2nd Yua whined to 1st Yua.

"Cause I used the armed phenomenon," Yua replied.

Odin sighed and put his hand on his face. The Yuas started to get in a heated argument.

"It's going to be a long day," Odin thought. "Hey," Odin said suddenly, "Haruto, do you mind giving Thor that data chip?"

"Sure," Haruto replied and put it on Thor's forehead.

It glowed with a blood red light with some blue lines running through it. Odin grinned and turned on his heel to descend down the basement.

"Yo! Haruto!" he called.

"Yeah?" Haruto asked, getting in front of the basement's entry.

"Can you get Alpha and bring him down here?"

"No problem!" Haruto called out and vanished.

Odin turned around and picked out pieces of parts for the first robot. Soon, Alpha was led down and Odin said, "Okay, Alpha. Now the plan is that we're going to make ninja."

They commenced their work, laying down pieces and hooking them together. Haruto listened to them talk, but since he couldn't understand what they were talking about, he walked up the stairs.


	24. Are They Gonna Leave?

Omega woke with a start and reached for his saber. It wasn't in its holster like it should have been. He analyzed his surroundings. It seemed like he was in a tree that had some sort of lighting in it and a fireplace with a fire in it. A weird bear skin rug lay on the floor. It was weird since it had a beak and feathers on its arms. Omega sat up slowly while Genadritch sat next to him, still knocked out. Omega chuckled and shook his head. A door slammed and Winter came in.

"Good morning!" she exclaimed with a big grin. "How are you today?"

Omega glared at her for the stupid question.

"Please, sir, don't stare at me like that!" Winter said while pretending to cower.

Omega stood up and hit his head on the ceiling. Winter snickered a little while he crouched and rubbed the top of his helmet.

"Anyway, as you know, my name is Winter," Winter said when some of the group of kids popped out of nowhere and sang, "She's Winter the tap dancing hobbit!" She danced a little jig while they sang before they disappeared as fast as they appeared. "Anyway," she continued, "what're you doing in my land? This is the Winter's land!" she exclaimed, waving one of her swords in the air.

"Look, Winter," Omega growled.

"Don't growl like a dog! You're a person! Silly boy!" Winter interrupted.

Omega lunged to grab Winter and she ran a little ways, stuck out her tongue, and said, "Hoo! You really need to work on your combat skills, old man!"

"Hey!" Omega yelled, lunging at her again.

Winter ran over to Genadritch and hid behind him.

"Save me!" she asked as Genadritch began to regain his consciousness.

"Huh?" he asked groggily.

"The Winter doesn't need other people," she said, pushing him over. "I'm my own woman!"

Omega crouched while steadily moving towards her. She rubbed her fingernails and looked at them.

"Hello, beautiful!" she said, grinning.

Omega lunged again and she jumped out of the way as he crashed into the wall.

"I hate you, Winter!" he yelled, scrambling to a crouched position again.

Winter's eyes filled with tears. "You... You hate me? I just wanted to be your friend!"

She sat down and started to cry as Omega inched towards her.

"That's it!" she exclaimed, jumping to her feet. "No more Mr. Nice Woman!"

She whirled at him, bringing her scimitars to bear. Omega blocked them with his arm guards, but they did quite a bit of damage, despite her swords being old-fashioned. He punched, tripped her so that she fell to the ground, kicked, and punched her again. She rolled away and uttered some strange incantation as she darted at him. He jumped and suddenly fell to the ground with a jerk. He looked back and found some overgrown plants that had suddenly surfaced out of nowhere were grabbing onto his legs and pulling him towards them. He clawed the ground as Winter looked on in satisfaction.

"Listen Carl, I haven't saved this world without learning something," she said, walking over to him. "I've learned that marriage stinks! All of your best friends get married and leave you!" She fiddled around with her black scimitars. The blades seemed to be a little unstable, but they could deal damage. "I've also learned how to fight. You can't defeat the Winter!" she exclaimed.

"In the air, she's allergic to chickens!" the other hobbits sang.

"Yes," Winter said, getting in a regal pose, "I am also the best pickpocket in the world too!"

"I can't stand this girl," Omega thought.

"Look, Winter," Genadritch interrupted, "can't you just let us go?"

"Hmm," Winter said. "Well, I have the ability to let you go since I am the greatest halfling in the entire world!" Her face lighted up. "I'm also the most humble!"

Omega sighed and put his hand on his face. "This is so stupid!" he thought.

"Anyway, why do you want to go through my land?" Winter asked.

Omega glared at her. "I'm trying to get back to my city!"

"Oh!" Winter exclaimed. "Well, goodness, dear Carl! You need my assistance!"

"No," Omega growled, trying to get the plants off of him, "I don't."

Winter walked over to him and leaned on him. "I insist. If you don't, I'll be forced to use the Winter torture!" He glared at her and she smiled widely. "Yes! You can't leave without me! Who's plants are holding who's pants?" She burst into laughter and exclaimed, "I'm also the greatest poet! Cicero wouldn't be able to rival me!"

"I don't think Cicero was a poet," Genadritch interrupted.

"I know that," Winter said. "Anywho! I'm coming with you!" She blinked. "I rhymed again! I'm such a genius!"

The plants let go of Omega and retreated into the ground. He got up carefully and walked over to Genadritch, making a small motion of his head that said "let's get going". Genadritch picked himself off the ground as Winter scurried around the room, grabbing a backpack and stuffing it with food.

"Toodles, mates! The Winter is going on an adventure, hopefully!" she called. The other halflings came out and waved good-bye to Winter as she strutted proudly out of a secret door, flinging Omega's and Genadritch's weapons behind her. "C'mon, Carl! Time's a wasting and we must be hasting!"

Omega picked up his weapons, a scowl on his face, as Winter started to laugh uproariously again.

"It's going to be a long day," Genadritch thought.


	25. Neo Arcadia's Evacuation

Hiroto glared over the top of the parapet on the roof of the building that they were in. He scanned the landscape, looking for any monsters. Suddenly, his eyes snapped to the horizon. A long line of humanoids were coming. He pulled out a pair of elec-binoculars and looked through them. He cringed at the sight and ran down the stairs.

"Yua! Haruto! We've got trouble!" he shouted as he ran down.

"What is it?" Yua asked, coming out from the command room.

Haruto appeared in a flash, Thor running up the stairs in heavy bounds.

"We've got an army coming. They're humanoid, but they're strange, otherworldly," Hiroto said anxiously, clutching his machine gun tightly. It was an old gun, from the Elf Wars, but he had built a love for it. "Get Odin."

Haruto disappeared and soon appeared as Odin's and Alpha's steps ran up the stairs.

"Where's Ciel?" Hiroto asked.

"She's gone," Thor said. "You let them go."

Hiroto slapped his forehead and silently lectured himself.

"We've gotta find them. Any ideas?" Hiroto asked, a small, lopsided frown showing on his face.

Odin shuffled his foot on the ground. "I can locate them, but it'll take time."

"Do it now!" Hiroto exclaimed, his voice getting a little louder than he would have liked.

Odin saluted quickly and went into his room.

"What should I do?" Alpha asked. "What do the rest of us do?"

Hiroto sighed. "I don't know. Actually, Yua? Can you contact the Mayor and convince him to evacuate Neo Arcadia?"

Yua scratched the back of her head. "I don't know. I can try."

"Okay," Hiroto said, starting to pace the floor. As Yua left, Hiroto quietly added, "I feel so useless."

Alpha walked up to him and put his hand on Hiroto's shoulder. "It'll be okay," Alpha said, giving a smile that he had not used in a long time. "But there was nothing that we could do to stop it."

Hiroto sighed. "Why? Why'd you build Hakai?"

Alpha's head lowered. "Because I wanted to defeat you. I'm sorry."

Hiroto forced Alpha's hand off his shoulder and walked into the command room, closing the door. He slid to the ground with a groan, covering his face with his hands.

"What's going on?" he asked himself. "What's going on in this world? Why has it all suddenly turned upside down?" He took his hands off his face and gave an exclamation of surprise. Both of them were green and seemed to have segments on the joints of his fingers and his wrist. He moved along the ground, looking at his hand with wide eyes, fear enveloping him. His eyes started to glaze over. "ODIN!" he yelled before passing out.

* * *

><p>Omega walked firmly through a forest, his ears turned off to prevent him from hearing the consistent prattling of Winter. He looked back at Genadritch and smiled. Genadritch's face was contorted with a look of annoyance. It was almost dark and they were nowhere in sight of Neo Arcadia.<p>

"We better set up camp here!" Winter exclaimed happily. "Don't worry animals! I'm a ranger, and we protect all wildlife! So don't bother attacking us tonight! We won't hurt you!"

"Why did you stop?" Omega asked and turned his hearing back on.

"Goodness! Are you deaf?" Winter asked.

"When I want to be," Omega replied, climbing into a tree.

Genadritch sat down on the ground, laying his double sword by him. "So, Winter, how long have you been alive?"

Winter thought for a little. "I'm about... one thousand years old?" Genadritch's jaw dropped and Omega looked at her suspiciously. Winter drew herself up in pride and then set her backpack down on the ground. She pulled out a small tent and set it up. "Did you not bring a tent?" she asked.

"We're robots, we don't need tents," Genadritch said matter-of-factly.

"Okay, but don't blame me if you rust," Winter said, gathering firewood.

"We don't rust," Genadritch replied, cocking his eyebrow.

Winter laughed loudly. "Don't be silly! All metal rusts!"

"Well, we don't," Genadritch said, getting a little frustrated.

Winter laid the firewood on the ground and set it up into a teepee style. It suddenly burst into flame. "Whoaaaaaaaaa!" Winter sang, stretching her arms in the air. "It lives!"

Omega started to focus on his system, seeing if he could auto-regenerate. It was the cord to his other form, but it should be able to regenerate. He closed his eyes, getting the rest and concentration he needed to start the process. It seemed like he had barely fallen asleep when he woke up with a jolt. He peered into the darkness. Something was obviously there, or else he wouldn't have woken up. He slowly pulled out his saber and stood on the branch of the tree.

"Genadritch," he softly muttered. No response. "Genadritch," he repeated, a little louder. He leapt down from the tree and landed in front of Genadritch. Still no response. "Genadritch?" he asked, hesitantly reaching out his hand. Genadritch's eyes snapped open, his eyes lacking pupils.

"Defiler!" he shouted. "How dare you come into _my_ forest! Leave before it is too late!"

Omega's eyes furrowed and he clutched his saber tighter. "Genadritch, knock it off."

Genadritch reached out his hand and it gave Omega the chills. Part of the frame was showing, with an unnatural skeleton-like look. Genadritch stood up and grasped his double saber, part of his face seeming like it was decayed. Omega's stomach tightened and felt like he was going to throw up. Omega struck at Genadritch's neck, Genadritch ducking and jumping away from him. Omega ran towards him, a flurry of sword waves emitting from his blade as he swung it around. Genadritch floated ethereally around, dodging the beams. Omega crouched and jumped into the air, firing with his gun as he leapt over Genadritch and wildly slashed with his sword. Genadritch dodged as best as he could, a few shots grazing him. Omega landed and turned, blocking Genadritch as Genadritch attacked him, leaping over him, taking large steps around him, and throwing fireballs at him. Omega ran and struck Genadritch and began to rapidly strike him. He followed up with a strike that emitted a beam of energy, slicing Genadritch in two. Genadritch clawed the ground and a fine mist rose up from his body. It formed into a ghostly figure, partially decayed. Omega spun his saber around, a snarl on his face.

"Wha-what happened?" Genadritch asked between his teeth, his face contorted in pain.

The ghost stared at Omega, its eyes a mere white light. It's body from the bottom of the torso gradually faded away into wisps. It was a male and had elven ears.

"Leave my forest!" it exclaimed. "Unless you can solve my death."

"I don't have time for that," Omega growled. "Leave us alone."

"Then you will suffer my wrath!" the ghost yelled, stretching its hand towards Omega. "I am the general Aramil! You will fall at the hands of my army before you can continue! Then you will forever roam the Shadowfell, never to return to the Material world!"

A few branches snapped and Omega looked around. A large army of elven creatures surrounded the camp, all brandishing longswords, bows, and some wielding wands. All had the light in their eyes and a grim appearance. Omega grinned.

"You're just a ghost," he said, slashing at Aramil.

Aramil brought out a sword and parried, then dealing a counter blow that made Omega cringe.

"I may be a ghost, but my sword strikes true," the ghost said. "If you want to live, you will avenge my death."

Genadritch slowly stood up, his body reconnected together. "I think we better do what he says."

Omega sighed. "I don't have time for this," he thought. "What do you want?" he asked Aramil.

Aramil turned around and said, "When the sun meets the moon, the abyss opens. The abyss does not leads into the depths of living death. The night met light, and the light lost. What is far is close. Evil leaks through, as does good. Strange things happen, but the good must prevail. The army of the west will meet the army of the east. The one that wins will be the one that rules the world. Asmodeus and his devils, Orcus and his undead, Demogorgon and his demons, Vecna and his undead, they are different, but their want is the same. Primordials awaken, the World Serpent shakes from fear, men's hearts shall fail. The one that mets out supposed justice, using strange laws, this is the cause of my death. Their army is large, powerful, and shakes the ground. None shall withstand them and their corruption. Who has corrupted them?" It turned around and grinned at Omega. "That is what you must find out and bring their left hand to me."

It disappeared with a cackle, the army fading away.

"Did you catch what he was saying?" Omega asked Genadritch.

"Sounds like he named the different evil gods and said that they're purpose was the same. When the sun meets the moon..." Genadritch hesitated. "What does he mean?"

"I don't know," Omega admitted. "If the sun met the moon, we would burn up."

"Solar eclipses, maybe?" Genadritch asked, shrugging a little.

"Maybe," Omega replied, nodding.

Genadritch nodded and stretched. "I'm gonna get some more sleep."

Omega also nodded and climbed back into his tree, clutching his saber tightly.

* * *

><p>Hiroto woke up slowly with Odin bending over him and Yua looking worriedly at him.<p>

"Hiroto. Hiroto!" Odin exclaimed.

Hiroto struggled to remember what had happened. He remembered that he went into the command room, but couldn't remember what else happened in there.

"Hiroto! We've gotta get out of here! The devils are almost here! They're practically here!" Odin exclaimed, shaking Hiroto.

"Wha-what's going on?" Hiroto asked, a little disoriented.

"C'mon, Hiroto! We've gotta go!" Yua pleaded.

Haruto walked through the door and picked Hiroto up, placing Hiroto across his shoulders. "Let's go!" he exclaimed, running as fast as he could.

Haruto, Yua, Odin, Thor, Recon, and Alpha ran down the stairs, exiting the building. They stopped and turned to look behind them. Some distant screams broke the air.

"Yua?" Hiroto asked dazedly. "Did you get with the mayor?"

Yua sadly shook her head. "They thought I was mad and tried to take me to the asylum."

Hiroto let his head droop while they started to run again. Other people started to evacuate, running and driving, warned by the screams. Hiroto looked up and saw a dark figure running along the rooftops.

"Alpha?" he asked, pointing weakly.

Alpha turned to look and snarled. "Hakai."

Recon pulled out his machine gun and fired as Hakai dodged, grabbing onto various protrusions in buildings' architecture. Hakai grabbed onto one protrusion and flipped around it, landing on top of it and immediately launching himself ahead of the Assassins. He landed on the ground with a hard thump and stood defiantly.

"You think you can run, don't you?" he asked, his anger showing. "I can't believe you joined these outdated people again, Alpha."

Barbed spikes appeared on the back of his hands, his hands morphing into claws. Darkness swirled around him, his eyes turning into green orbs. Two metal claws emerged between the knuckles of each of his hands. Darkness surrounded Yua, her anger rising.

"_I can do that too,"_ Yua thought with a small grin.

She launched herself at him and he made a swipe with his hands, the spikes impaling themselves into Yua. She flinched and struck Hakai across the face, making him stumble a little. He wiped his mouth and smiled smugly.

"So, I'm not the only one that plays with time," he said, casting a brief glance at the rest of the Assassins. "You can, but they can't."

He ran to Alpha and drove his claws into Alpha's stomach, lifting Alpha in the air.

"No!" Yua yelled, running towards him.

Hakai threw Alpha into Yua, knocking them both down. Yua struggled to get Alpha off of her as Hakai jumped into the air, coming back down with his claw raised. With a desperate push, she flung Alpha off her and rolled away. Hakai hissed and a tail emerged.

"You have one monster, I have several," he said quietly.

He flung himself at Yua, throwing spikes at her and she jumped out of the way.

"Come on, guys," Yua thought. "Can't you do anything?

"Stand still!" Hakai yelled. "Do I have to get hard on you?"

He jumped towards her again and she ran towards him, doing her best to avoid the spikes. As he struck with his blades, she rolled under him and shifted directions back towards him as he landed. She grabbed his neck as he turned and energy started flowing from him into her.

"Mastered that trick yet?" she asked proudly.

"Wizening ray?" he asked. "Yes."

The energy stopped flowing and Hakai stood up. Yua looked at him in fear as he stood. Something was wrong. His ribs bulged awkwardly to the side and he seemed a little taller. A sickening sound came when arms emerged with hands with fingers that were actually metal claws and Yua stumbled backwards, the color gone from her face. Hakai smiled savagely, a smile that revealed another row of sharp bottom teeth. He slammed the back of his hand into Yua, the spikes embedding themselves in her as she fell to the ground. She looked up as he walked towards her, the devils coming closer and taking out all in their path. Recon was trying to get a secure lock on Hakai. Hakai scooped Yua up and threw her against a wall. He picked her up again and slammed her against the wall, looking into her eyes. He backhanded her across the face, the blades slicing into the synthetic skin and partially into her metal frame. He glanced to the side and slapped Haruto with his tail, knocking Haruto over. Hiroto lay on the ground, his hands still oddly transformed, but agony manifesting in his face. Yua's heart sank and then she looked back at Hakai with a newfound strength. He snarled, a proud, snarl that meant that she couldn't do anything. Yua expanded her realm of time control, allowing the Assassins to be in the same time realm. A volley of machine gun fire struck Hakai in the back, making him bend over backwards. Thor ran towards him and smashed his fist into Hakai as Hakai turned, a thunderous noise coming from it, making Hakai crash into the wall and drop Yua. All she could do was be on her hands and knees, focusing on her time realm. Haruto grabbed Hakai and ran up the wall of the building. At the top, he back-flipped off and they plummeted through the air. Hakai slashed wildly, trying to get Haruto off the top of him. Haruto smiled with a grim determination, doing his best to dodge Hakai's blades. They slammed into the ground and Haruto jumped away. Hakai jumped up and Hiroto appeared out of nowhere.

"What the?" Hakai thought, his senses spinning. "What just happened?"

Three green, segmented tentacles emerged from Hiroto's back and latched onto Hakai. Hiroto pulled out a knife from his boot and rammed it into Hakai's heart. Hakai groaned, his eyes wide with pain, and collapsed on the ground.

"Yua!" Odin yelled, leaving his attendance of Alpha and running over to her. He muttered a few incoherent phrases and the spikes dropped out, her face repairing itself.

"Thanks," Yua said gratefully, waiting to see if Hakai would do anything before dropping her time realm. Hakai lay limply on the ground and Hiroto pulled the blade out of Hakai, wiping the robotic fluid on his shirt.

"Let's go," Hiroto said urgently.

Yua stood up shakily and Recon helped support her as she ran. Alpha got up and ran to Hakai, placing something on the back of his head for a moment and then taking it back out. He grinned and ran to catch up with the rest of the group. Meanwhile, another figure sat, perched on the top of a building, only partially built, most of his frame without armor, some synthetic skin missing from one side of his face. He smiled happily, swinging his leg over the edge of the building. He had a helmet that resembled Hidden Phantom's helmet, but had the blades of Fighting Fefnir's helmet on its sides, rotated 90 degrees. He wore two pistols in holsters on his thighs, a duplicate of Zero's ZSaber on his back. His gaze shifted to the massacre below him and his expression changed to anger.

"Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do," he whispered to himself. He shook his head in despair. "I'll stay here and see what I can do after the carnage is over." He stood up shakily, not quite used to his functions yet.

* * *

><p>How did I do on this chapter? Well? Not so well? Terrible? How can I improve?<p> 


	26. The Library

Ciel, Axl, and Cerveau made their way out of the city. Axl led the way, his gun ready for anything. He heard a small sound behind him and turned around. Ciel was quietly crying.

"Ciel?" Axl asked, stopping. "What's wrong?"

"After all this time," Ciel said, taking quick breaths between her words, "the wars are still going on. What more do I need to do?"

Axl walked towards her and gave her a soft hug as Cerveau gently placed his hand on her shoulder.

"It'll be okay," he said softly. "We can stop this, somehow." Axl dreaded his own words. The fear of not being able to stop it was a thought he tried to push back to the back of his mind. He didn't trust the Assassins, his lip curling whenever he thought of them. He slowly let go of Ciel and said, "Well, we can go to the Resistance Base and see what we can do there."

Ciel shook her head. "Another faction took it over."

Axl grunted and turned around, continuing on the direction towards another city called Abel City. He could see the advancing army out of the corner of his eye, his heart sinking within him.

"Can I lead us?" Ciel asked.

"Yeah, sure."

Ciel sped up to walk in front of Axl. It was good to feel at least a little like a leader again.

"Axl? Are we going to Abel City?" she asked.

"Yeah," Axl replied.

"Men," she thought, a little smile on her face. "They always give short replies."

They walked for what seemed to be an hour when Axl stopped.

"Axl?" Ciel asked inquisitively as she turned around.

"My carbon dating reader sense that this spot is particularly old," he said, stooping to investigate the ground.

Ciel's ears perked. There was a low rumble. She was sure that Axl could hear it.

"Earthquake?" Ciel thought. "There isn't a fault around here for miles."

"Ciel?" Axl asked, his voice sounding a little frightened. He slowly moved up to her.

The ground suddenly dropped out from under Ciel's feet and she fell, her scream filling a hollow space.

"Ciel!" Axl yelled, leaping down after her.

"Miss Ciel!" Cerveu yelled, unable to do anything more than grab the edge of the hole.

Ciel soon impacted on something solid and Axl fired his thrusters. He hit the ground, thrusters unable to lessen the impact, his legs sending pain signals through him. He slowly stood up, pain surging through his legs. He put his fingers on Ciel's neck and was reassured that she was still alive by the presence of a pulse. She was unconscious. Hopefully nothing else would happen.

"Axl!" Cerveau called. "Is she okay?"

"Yeah!"

"Thank goodness," Cerveau said, breathing a sigh of relief.

Axl decided to take the time to look around him. So this is where the signal from his carbon dating was coming from. Apparently he was in a library, less than 2,000 years old. The books, chairs, and shelves were falling apart, cobwebs all over the place, and an evil feeling enveloped the place. A couple of broken statue busts stood on old, decayed stands. Axl clutched his pistol more tightly, looking around apprehensively, not liking the feel of the library at all. He decided to try to find something to at least make Ciel comfortable. He walked over to one of the chairs and pulled a cushion off. It was actually quite nice. It just needed a dusting. Axl had the strange feeling that something was watching him and he slowly looked over towards the librarian desk. He couldn't really tell what was there, but there was an outline from the light entering from the hole. Small squeaks could be heard.

"Rats," Axl thought, hurrying over to Ciel, hoping they weren't scampering over her. He dusted the cushion off and propped Ciel's head up. "It is possible she when she wakes up, she might be in shock," he thought, walking over to another chair after making sure that the rats weren't around to disturb her. He picked up its cushion, the feeling that something was watching him still from that librarian desk. He tried to ignore the feeling as he dusted the cushion off.

"Anything I can do to help, Axl?" Cerveau shouted.

"Not unless you can come down here," Axl shouted back. Axl decided to leave the cushion alone until he needed it. "Wait a minute," he thought. "I don't need this second cushion." He looked at it for a little and noticed a small inscription that was glowing red. He took a closer look at it.

Cerveau meanwhile started to pace the ground.

"Cerveau!" Axl yelled.

Cerveau fell to his knees at the hole, hoping that Axl wasn't getting attacked.

"What does this mean?" Axl asked, pointing towards the inscription.

After straining his eyes for a little, Cerveau said, "I don't know. I can't see it well." Axl set the cushion to the side with a shrug. "Is Miss Ciel awake yet?" Cerveau asked. Axl turned to look at her and shook his head. "I can't stand this," Cerveau thought, getting up to pace some more. Axl decided to sit down on the hard wood floor and wait for Ciel to wake up. After a long time, Ciel slowly woke up. Axl was immediately by her side.

"Ciel? Is there anything you want? Where are you hurting?" he asked.

"My... My head really hurts. My back isn't doing quite well either," she said, her face twisted in a pained expression.

"Okay, Ciel," Axl said. "I'm going to put my hand on your back. This is a test to see if your back is broken." Axl tried to wedge his hand under Ciel's back, but withdrew when Ciel cried out. Axl shook his head. "This isn't good. You've got a broken back. We're going to need a medic." Axl looked up and called out to Cerveau. "Cerveau! Can you run to Abel City and see if you can get a medic?"

"Sure thing, Axl," he said, pulling out a pistol. "Are you sure you'll be okay?"

"I won't be if you don't hurry!"

"Right away!" Cerveau said, running off.

Axl slumped on the ground. "I wish I had a blanket to give you at least," he said to Ciel compassionately.

"I'm fine," she replied, looking up and smiling weakly. A sharp pain shot through her back and she clenched her teeth and Axl tried to keep her from moving. A glass bottle clinked, drawing Axl's attention. "What is it?" Ciel asked. Axl's eyes shifted around, looking in the direction of where the sound came from. It was useful having improved hearing. Sometimes, though, it could drive him crazy. Only in situations that dealt with scary feelings as he made his way through a place. He shuddered, remembering trying to get through Red's fortress. He pulled his other gun out, slowly standing up. There was the faint sound of dragging chains mingled with the feeling of evil.

"Ciel, whatever you do, don't make a sound or try to do anything," he mumbled quietly as he walked towards the sound. He stopped and stepped back a little. No point in going too far since there was too much darkness to fight in. He aimed his pistols, not firing, just to make sure that this was a threat. The figure started to become clear. It was covered from its legs to the top of its head in chains and the evil feeling emanated from it. It wielded two chains with sharp tips. Axl opened fire, barely doing anything to the chains which acted like an armor. The thing flailed the two chains out at him as he jumped backward and tripped and fell. The thing was immediately on him and grabbed his throat, its chains wrapping themselves around him, almost as if they were alive. It picked him up, saying something in a strange language. The only thing he managed to pick up was "Axl". The chains ripped his guns from out of his grasp and pulled them towards the thing as he viewed them with contempt. Axl tried to free himself from its grip, but somehow it was stronger. The chains sprouted more barbs, this time along the whole length of the chain. The barbs dug into his arm and he writhed, the thing watching silently with a grin. "Where's Cerveau when you need him?" he thought to himself, still trying to free himself. He decided to try one last thing. He acted like he was struggling to get away and it brought him closer to himself. Perfect. He smashed his head into its own head, making the chains relax their grip as the thing stumbled backwards while holding its head. He got out from the chains and picked up his guns. He jumped away, landing on top of a shelf, jumping again before one of the chains smashed into the top of the shelf, its chains ripping through the paper and wood. Axl landed on another shelf, rolling away as the other chain ripped through the shelf. The creature lunged at him, trying to get him in range of its chains. Axl jumped away, firing as he went. He prepared a DNA shot, dodging while it was getting ready. The creature yelled something, and Axl fired. "Maybe I shouldn't have done that," he thought as the transformation engulfed him, changing him into the creature. He flailed the chains around, not quite sure of what to do. The creature's chains grabbed his and pulled on them, bringing him closer to it. "I'm done with that," he thought, abandoning the data. He whipped out his pistols and fired into the creatures unguarded chest and it stumbled back, its chest riddled with burnt blood holes.

"Axl," it said, blood forming from its mouth. "Orcus is extending you a chance to become greater. You should take it."

"No thanks. I don't wanna become a creep like you," Axl said, firing a few more shots into its chest. It took a few steps back and fell over a wrecked couch. Axl stepped forward, his lip curled in disgust, its body slowly fading away into a black mist. He looked himself over. A lot of holes in his armor, a little leaking fluid, but not too bad. It should repair itself. He ran over to Ciel. Her face was worried, but soon relaxed as soon as she saw him.

"What happened?" she asked.

"I don't know," Axl replied. "I fought something. It apparently knows my name."

Ciel looked over him. "You don't look too good."

Axl shrugged. "Just holes in the armor and a little cut. Nothing serious." A face peered over the edge of the hole and Axl looked up at it. "Who're you?"

It jumped down and landed, faltering a little because of pain and its unfinished state. "My name will be unknown for now, but you will learn later on. All right, Miss. Where're you hurting?"

"She's got a broken back," Axl interrupted. "Say, where'd you get that ZSaber?"

The robot looked back and smiled. "Oh, this? This is a duplicate of Zero's."

Axl took a careful look over it. "You don't look complete. How'd you get out of the manufacturing plant?"

"My owner didn't have enough time to complete me," it said, kneeling down by Ciel. "They had to evacuate Neo Arcadia."

"I see," Axl said, not completely liking this stranger.

"You've got assistance coming?" it asked.

"Yeah," Axl said, keeping a tight grip on his pistols.

"So what happened, Miss?" it asked Ciel.

"Well, Axl told me something, I felt a tremor, and then the ground collapsed under me," Ciel said, wincing a little.

"That's a long way to fall for a lady like you," he said, grinning a little before turning serious again. "You mind if I take off your helmet?" Ciel shook her head and he pulled it off. He tried to look at the back of her head without moving it too much. He squinted his eyes, straining against the low light conditions. Nothing seemed to be wrong so he checked the helmet. "Well," he began, "it seems like your helmet absorbed the damage."

"So, uh, how'd you get out of the manufacturing company if they didn't finish you? Normally they leave the robots turned off until they're finished," Axl said.

The robot chuckled. "Yes, well, um... I'll talk to you about that later."

"No," Axl said, grabbing the robot abruptly and picking him up to look at him face to face, "I want answers now."

"I'm sorry," the robot said gently, avoiding eye contact, "but I don't want to tell you right now."

"That's another thing," Axl exclaimed, a bit angry, "how did you find us anyway? Why did you follow us?"

"Axl, just accept the help you get," it said, still avoiding eye contact.

"How do you know my name?" Axl asked, folding his arms wearing an expression that wanted an answer.

The robot sighed. "All right. Name's X."

"Why were you named X?" Axl asked.

"X is a variable, meaning limitless potential," X replied.

Axl snorted. "Were you supposed to be a copy of Megaman X?"

X shook his head. "I _am_ Megaman X."

Axl's expression softened a little. "Prove it."

X sighed and said, "My creator was Thomas Xavier Light. I was discovered by Dr. Cain and my design was copied to form reploids. Being the original, I couldn't get the Maverick Virus. I fought in the Elf Wars and sealed the Dark Elf, also known as the Mother Elf, with my own body. My 'spirit' got separated into five pieces. From them was formed Fighting Fefnir, Hidden Phantom, Sage Harpuia, and Fairy Leviathan. The last piece was missing. That last piece was my cyber elf. This reincarnation of myself is by using my cyber elf body and entering the body of a partially formed reploid, inserting my data into the computer of the reploid. Since I was a program, I was able to do this."

Axl's legs fell out from under him and the pistols fell to the ground. "X," he said, his eyes filling with tears, "I'm so sorry. Please, forgive me."

X knelt down and grabbed Axl's hand. "Axl, it's okay. You didn't know. If you did know you wouldn't have treated me like you did." X turned and looked at Ciel with a gentle smile. "And you're Ciel. The great researcher for the cure."

Ciel smiled tenderly. "Yes, I'm Ciel. I'm honored to be in your presence, X." Her smile slowly changed into a mournful frown. "But my research has done nothing. There is still fighting."

X gently put a hand on Ciel's shoulder. "Ciel, it doesn't matter. The thing that does matter is that you tried." He stood up and looked around. "How old is this place?"

"Less than 2,000 years old," Axl replied, wiping a tear away from his face.

X nodded. "I wonder if we can glean some information from this library about how to defeat those things attacking Neo Arcadia."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Axl said, picking up a book carefully and looking through it. They searched for half an hour before Cerveau got back with a couple of medics with a stretcher and rope.

"Axl! We're here!" Cerveau yelled.

"Great!" Axl exclaimed. "Can you get Ciel back up?"

"Yeah! Okay, boys, lower the stretcher."

They lowered the stretcher and X and Axl gently pushed Ciel onto it. Once they were done, Axl gave a thumbs up and they lifted Ciel up to the surface. Axl activated his thrusters and then dropped back to the ground. "How're you going to get up?" Axl asked X.

X shrugged. "I'll probably just take the stretcher up."

"Okay," Axl replied, nodding. "See you up there in a bit."

He activated his thrusters again and made his way to the top. The stretcher was lowered down again and X lay down on it. He got out once they were on the ground and stood up, dusting himself off.

"You look like you could use some finishing off," one of the medics commented.

"If you could, that would be great," X said, smiling a little.

"All right," the medic replied, throwing his arm around X's shoulder. They walked into a car and drove off to Abel City.


	27. A New Recruit

The dense foliage was quickly cut away as Omega sliced through the forest.

"I'm pretty sure that I didn't come this way, Winter," he said, scowling at her.

"Well it's the way back!" Winter replied, sitting happily on Genadritch's shoulders. "Thank you, dear sir, for letting me sit on you."

"No problem," Genadritch said, easily keeping Winter on his shoulders. Since she was a halfling, she was lighter than humans. Omega cut away some more foliage and a rush of excitement came over him.

"We're here," he said quietly in a grim tone.

"See!" Winter exclaimed, smiling broadly.

"All right, Missy, I'm putting you down," Genadritch said, setting her on the ground as he spoke. He looked back up at Omega and noticed that Omega wasn't moving. "Omega?" he asked, venturing closer with a tight grip on his double sword. "What's going on?"

"Something's wrong," Omega replied shortly. "No traffic is coming in or out of Neo Arcadia." Genadritch shrugged.

"I wouldn't know since I've never been to Neo Arcadia." Omega motioned Genadritch over and Genadritch whistled. "That's a large city!" he exclaimed. Omega nodded.

"Let's go," Omega said, carefully making his way down the hills to Neo Arcadia. About half a mile away from the city, he said, "Winter, you stay out of this."

"Why?" she sneered. "I'm just as good as you two fat guys!"

"We're not fat," Genadritch softly said.

"You're taller than me! Hence, fat."

"Which is why we're keeping you here!" Omega exploded. "You're way too noisy!"

"Ha!" Winter exclaimed. "I'm just as silent as both of you put together! Individually too! I am the Winter!" She waved her scimitar in the air with a flourish as she said the last sentence.

"Okay, THE Winter," Omega retorted, "You're staying here! Why don't you sneak around the forest and hunt yourself a deer." His eyes flashed and his anger rose sharply. Winter just stood, shocked and her eyes filling with tears.

"But... but..."

"But nothing!" Omega yelled. "You're staying here!" And with that, spun around and started to walk away. Genadritch hurried to his side and asked,

"Wasn't that a little rough?"

"She's the most annoying person that I've met. She deserved it," Omega growled.

"Still..." Genadritch said, casting a glance back at Winter but didn't see her. "See what you've done?" he exclaimed. Now HE was angry with Omega. Why'd he have to be so... mean? "She's gone!"

"Good riddance," Omega snarled. "We didn't need her anyway." Genadritch immediately jumped into the air and slammed both of his feet into Omega's head, knocking him to the ground. Omega scrambled to his feet, disoriented from the power of Genadritch's kick, and fired his blaster at the images of Genadritch that were flying all over the place. He readied his sword, just in case Genadritch decided to get close. Genadritch just jumped all over the place, not bothering to get closer and Omega dashed towards him, slicing through the air with his saber. Genadritch dodged and smacked the side of Omega's head with the end of his double sword that wasn't ignited. "What do you think you're doing!" Omega yelled, spinning around as he sheathed his sword and barely grabbed Genadritch's neck.

"Maybe," Genadritch choked out, "if you'd let go of my neck, I'd tell you." Omega dropped Genadritch, staring angrily at him as Genadritch struggled to get some breath. Apparently Omega's grip was tighter than he thought. As soon as he got some air in his system, Genadritch growled, "What do you think gives you the right to do whatever you want? I don't know a lot about you, but you weren't the best of guys, back in the days of Zero." Omega's lip curled in disgust. "You've changed, but not much." Genadritch looked at him accusingly. "Why don't you go to Neo Arcadia on your own?"

"Fine," Omega snapped. "Go back to that whiner. I hope you choke on her words and die." Genadritch furrowed his eyebrows but otherwise just left Omega alone as he walked back towards where they left Winter. Omega groaned in contempt and suddenly something hit him in the back of the leg.

"I'm not a whiner!" Winter's voice called out as he spun around, drawing his saber. The voice startled Genadritch and he looked for where Winter's voice came from as Omega looked. "Fatso! I'm down here! In front of you!" Omega looked down but still saw nothing. He lashed out with his hand to grab her, if she was in front of him, but something landed on his shoulders. Winter reappeared into sight as she sat on Omega's shoulders. Genadritch chuckled as Omega quietly growled. "Let's go, Carl!" she exclaimed happily. "To Narcai Deo!"

"Only if you stop talking!" Omega shouted, looking at her as much as he could.

"Silent is my middle name!" Winter said as she shifted his head towards the direction of Neo Arcadia. "It's that way." Omega groaned and started to walk towards Neo Arcadia again, Genadritch following a couple of yards behind.

As soon as they were a hundred couple of yards, Winter popped off his back. Omega analyzed the city, not finding any signs of life. He moved warily forward until he came inside the city. It was deserted and littered with cars and bodies. Women, children, and men. All dead. Homeless people, people on their way to work, people coming back from school and college. His heart sunk within him and ran to the Assassin's base, avoiding stepping on the dead bodies. He searched every room and dreaded opening any doors, expecting to find Ciel's body inside. As he arrived at the last door, the door to the command room, he reached out to twist the knob, and stopped, letting his hand fall limply to his side. He turned around and sat at the top of the stairs, trying to get the courage to open the door. As he sat there, Genadritch slowly walked up the stairs.

"What's wrong?" Genadritch asked dryly. "Can't get the courage to kill the last kid?" Omega's eyes flared and he quickly got on his feet.

"No," Omega retorted angrily, "I'm looking for a very special human."

"To kill him or her," Genadritch added.

"Genadritch, do I have to split you in two AGAIN?" Omega asked. Genadritch simply shrugged.

"I'll just put myself back together again, as always," he replied, sneering. Omega turned away and went back to the door. He stood looking at it as Genadritch walked the rest of the way up the stairs. Genadritch made himself comfortable by leaning against a wall, a smug smile on his face. "So what happened to the Omega that was in the Zero days?" Omega shook his head.

"Somewhat gone. Not really." He flung the door open and flinched. Good. She wasn't here. He finally relaxed his muscles. Winter came rushing up the stairs.

"Demons!" she yelled and jumped onto Omega and clung to him.

"Winter, don't be..." Omega started before Winter interrupted.

"Don't be silly! I know Demon's fighting style when I see it! The cuts in the bodies are very much like the demon's fighting style." She dropped off of him and added, "But no worries! The Winter will protect us!" She drew her scimitars and waved them in the air. Genadritch's ears perked and he quieted Winter. He listened harder and activated his double sword, making his way quietly down the stairs. He paused and jumped down the rest of the way and a sound thunk followed.

"Ow!" a voice yelled. "Don't kill me! Please! It's not like the occupants are still alive, so it's not really stealing, right!"

"What were you doing slinking around here?" Genadritch calmly asked as Omega and Winter ran down the stairs to find a figure clothed in black, resembling a ninja. The only skin showing were its fingers and the area around its eyes. Several knives were strapped to its belt and a katana was in a scabbard on its back. Several parts from the Assassin's basement were scattered on the ground around the person.

"Just getting some stuff," the person replied, its whole body shaking a little and pulling a small part towards it. Genadritch slapped its hand with the end of his double sword that he deactivated, making the person yelp and pull its hand back towards itself.

"What'd you do that for?" it asked, massaging its hand. "That was my sword hand!" Genadritch mentally rolled his eyes.

"You're not very tough for a ninja," Omega commented.

"Am I supposed to be?" it asked.

"Normally, I don't think ninjas would be as wimpy as you are being right now," Omega said. The person sighed.

"That's because I'm not a full-fledged ninja," it said quietly. "I failed my class and, normally, when you fail the ninja class, you're executed. The ninjas don't want to get their techniques, even ones that aren't quite right, to get out into the public." Winter trotted over to the person, sat down next to it, and jovially asked,

"What's your name?" The stranger started and stammered a little.

"Steven."

"Steven..." Winter repeated. "I think I'm going to call you..."

"Oh boy," Omega thought. "Here it comes."

"Kaldeen!"

"How come you couldn't come up with a better name for me?" Omega exploded.

"Heh, I just like teasing you. You're funny to tease!" Winter replied and Omega groaned in frustration. Winter turned back to "Kaldeen" and said, "Kaldeen, you can stick around me! I'll teach you to be a ninja!"

"Really?" Kaldeen asked. "You're a ninja?"

"Ninja is my middle name!" Omega snorted and walked out as Winter gave him a dirty look. "Don't mind him! He's weird!"


	28. Capture by the Dark Elves

The author finally shows his head again in this story! Yeah, I've been working a lot on The Reploids of the Late Master Thomas. :/

* * *

><p>Hiroto pushed through some of the brush that surrounded Neo Arcadia, the two Yua's, Alpha, Haruto, and Thor closely following. They pushed through, not uttering a word.<p>

The thing on Hiroto's mind was whether he would be able to protect his team from what had invaded Neo Arcadia. He wasn't sure if the things were following them or not but it was best to be safe.

"When's Omega going to get back?" 1st Yua asked.

"Don't know," Hiroto replied. "When he gets back, he'll be in for a surprise."

"What if the things are still there?" Thor asked.

"He can fight them. He is Omega, after all," Hiroto said.

"We should at least tell him where we went," 2nd Yua said.

"I don't want to risk any of you getting caught," Hiroto said.

"Recon risks getting caught since he's a scout," Alpha pointed out.

Hiroto sighed. "That's the job of a scout! To scout out–" He crashed through some underbrush and fell into a deep hole where darkness ruled.

"Hiroto!" Yua yelled, grabbing the edge.

The hole seemed to go on forever. Hiroto's mind raced. How could he protect Yua if she was dead? What about Alpha? What if he was just pretending?

He crashed into some stone, making his whole body cry out in pain. He tried to get back up but couldn't get past the pain.

"Yua! I'm alive, but I can't move," he called back up.

"We're coming, Hiroto!" Yua yelled. "Odin's making a rope!"

Hiroto looked around while he waited for Odin. It was more than just a hole. It was a cavern, filled with tunnels.

"Hey Odin!" Hiroto called out.

Odin looked over worriedly into the hole. "Yeah, Hiroto?"

"Just cast a healing spell! This is a cavern! I kinda want to explore this place."

Odin looked at the rest of the Assassins. "No, Hiroto. We're getting you out of there. I'm building the rope."

"Odiiiinnn," Hiroto said sternly, glaring at him.

Odin groaned. Sometimes it was useless to argue with Hiroto. "Fine. I'll finish the rope, we'll all go down there, I'll heal you, and we can explore for half an hour."

"Deal," Hiroto agreed.

The rope was soon made and the Assassins made their way down and waited for five minutes as Odin went through the motions of casting a spell. He finished the spell with a flourish and picked Hiroto up. Hiroto flinched, expecting the pain to come, but relaxed when it didn't.

"Remember. Thirty minutes," Hiroto reminded.

"Thirty," Odin confirmed.

They wandered through the various caverns, most of them empty except for some jewels here and there, fungi being abundant in the really damp parts.

Hiroto led them and his foot squished into something.

"Careful. It's really damp right here," he warned.

Odin stepped on it and looked down. His eyes widened. "This is not ground."

The thing that they were stepping on suddenly disappeared and reappeared adjacent to Hiroto. It was a little more than twice the height of Thor and lacked eyes, its body somewhat resembling a slug. Two tentacles formed its arms with an extra one on its back, a huge mouth covering most of its head with protrusions that were like mouth guards. It dove straight at Hiroto, but Hiroto just stood there.

"Hiroto!" Recon yelled, pushing Hiroto away and narrowly dodging the creature's mouth.

"Balhannoth!" Odin yelled, casting spells that burned the creatures' green flesh. "If it disappears, run like crazy!"

The creature straightened after diving for Hiroto and made a strange growl. Recon pulled out his mobile plasma launcher and fired at it. It disappeared seconds before the hit impacted.

"Run!" Odin yelled.

"I can get it!" Recon yelled back as the others scattered, both of the Yua's form starting to be draped in black.

"No! Recon!" Odin yelled, running towards Recon as the Balhannoth reappeared next to Recon, stunning him and it grabbed him with its tentacle, dragging him close to its gaping maw. Recon pulled his trigger finger, but found that he had dropped his weapon. Now Yua was running up the Balhannoth's flesh with super speed, kicking at it with all her might. Hiroto slashed at it and narrowly avoided being crushed by its tentacle. He was thrown back by the force and his saber flew out of his hand. Thor's muscles were bulging as he hit the monster as much as he could but nothing seemed to be able to stop Recon from coming closer to the creature's mouth.

"Thor!" Recon yelled. "Throw my gun up towards me as I get stuffed in its mouth!"

"Right!" Thor yelled back, grabbing the gun and readied himself to throw it.

The creature seemed to sense Thor grabbing the gun and flicked him away with one of its tentacles and teleported away. Hiroto was up and running towards the gun. The creature shifted its head in his direction and shrieked, Recon inches from its mouth.

"I'm out of spells!" Odin yelled.

The creature teleported over to Hiroto, stunning him again and grabbing him with its other tentacle. Yua dashed towards the gun, faster than the creature could react, but she was limping after crashing to the ground when the creature had teleported away from her assault.

"Please," she whispered as she grabbed the gun. "Don't die on me now, Recon and Hiroto."

Recon was placed in the creature's mouth and Hiroto was soon to follow. She didn't have the strength to throw it upwards so she ran up its body and onto its shoulder. It made a slight twitch and Yua threw the gun towards its mouth. Its mouth slammed shut, seconds after the gun had landed inside, and it teleported away in front of where Odin was running.

"Recon! Fire!" Yua shouted as she fell again.

Multiple blasts fired and Balhannoth groaned. It toppled and fell, Hiroto clutched tightly in its grasp. Haruto ran over to Hiroto and tried to force the creature's tentacles open.

"Thor! Help me!" Haruto pleaded. Thor lumbered over and slowly wrenched its tentacle open, releasing Hiroto as he gasped for air.

"Recon?" Yua asked, stepping closer.

Every step was painful, making tears roll down her cheeks. Thor wasn't looking too good either. Haruto had some damage, but wasn't too bad. What had happened to Alpha? Yua looked around and saw Alpha knocked out cold.

"He's coming!" Hiroto exclaimed happily and the teeth of the creature blew out and Recon crawled out, looking the worse for wear.

"This isn't over yet," Odin said grimly.

Hiroto looked around. "Alpha!" he yelled and started to run over to Alpha but was stopped by Odin.

"Don't move a muscle," Odin warned quietly. "There's more people here."

Before anyone could ask why, the cavern slowly filled with voices speaking in a strange language, if it was a language at all.

"What are they?" Haruto asked.

"Drow. Lots of them," Odin said.

"What're they saying?" Hiroto asked as Recon pulled up his gun.

"I haven't learned all of the Deep Speech, but something about 'slaves'," Odin said. "Don't resist. If you do, you may be killed in a cruel way. Drow are known for this. Put your weapons down. You'll feel a prick from their needles, I'm guessing, since they knocked out Alpha."

"What did they do?" Yua asked.

"It's a special poison they make. It knocks out foes instead of killing them. Slaves are worthless dead. We can regroup after we get captured. They sell their slaves at an auction to the highest bidder."

Yua looked around. The forms were becoming more distinct. Tall, dark humanoids with pointy ears. They carried crossbows tipped with a pointy end. It wasn't barbed, so that confirmed the desire that they had to make them into slaves, if there really was poison on the tips. A few of them lifted their crossbows and fired, the crossbow bolts sinking into the Assassins skin. Within seconds, they were feeling the effects of the poison and passed out, Odin casting a spell in their last conscious seconds to repair Yua's leg.


	29. The Drow

Yes! It's here! Chapter 29! Read and review!

* * *

><p>Axl barreled through the hospital in Cain City and knocked a doctor over.<p>

"Sorry!" he called over his shoulder as he continued on.

"Stupid reploid!" the doctor yelled as a nurse helped him up.

Axl threw the door open to Ciel's room, making Ciel gasp with fright. She sighed and shook her head.

"Axl, did you really have to just barge in here?" she asked.

Axl grinned. "Just heard the news that you're well."

Ciel chuckled and shook her head again. "You'll always be Axl, won't you?"

"Yep! Any mavericks and I'll clean em' up!" Axl said. He sat down on her bedside and asked, "So how are you feeling?"

"Pretty good," Ciel replied. "The doctors here are wonderful... and so is the food." Axl's laugh got muffled since the comment took him so unexpectedly. "So where's X?"

"X? I think he's out wandering around the hospital," Axl said as he pointed out the door. He flicked his head at a book that was sitting on a stand. It was old, decayed, and some of the pages were missing. "How's the book?"

Ciel picked it up and held it close to her with a smile. "I love it! It's so interesting! The English is really old, but I can make out a lot of it. It talks about the worlds, the races, the weaponry used, the factions, politics of the races, daring quests, everything!"

"Anything about the Far Realm?" Axl asked, getting straight to the point.

Ciel's face fell and she shook her head. "No. I think they fell out."

"Everything?" Axl said, getting a little suspicious.

Ciel nodded. "I only get little bits that mention it, but nothing that actually talks about how to stop it. It almost seems..."

"Like they've been torn out," Axl finished and Ciel nodded.

"Torn out pages?" someone asked, startling Ciel and making Axl draw his pistol and point it at the stranger. "Put it down."

"Sorry. Reflex," Axl said as he shoved his pistol back into its holster.

"And you are?" Ciel said.

"I'm Seji," the stranger said as he bowed. "I heard that X was here."

"Word gets around fast," Ciel said. "We've only been here for three days and already you know that X is here?"

"I have my ways," Seji said

"You seem familiar. Have we met?" Ciel said as she straightened in her gurney.

"Yes, we have," Seji said and interrupted Ciel as she tried to speak, "I will leave it at that, however."

"So what're you doing here?" Axl asked.

"I'm offering my services as a mercenary. If you need skills, I'm with you. I wanted to talk to X about it," Seji said as he ran his hand through his green hair.

"We don't..." Axl began.

"We'd be pleased to have you, if X approves," Ciel interrupted, giving Axl a glare. Axl started to whistle, trying to look innocent as he wandered around the room. "Would you mind waiting until X comes back?"

"No, I don't," Seji said as he moved from the doorway and into the room.

"So, you're reploid?" Ciel asked. Seji nodded. His appearance would've be just like any other reploid except for the fact that he had two green boomerang-shaped imprints underneath his eyes. Ciel tilted her head. It couldn't be... could it? "Harpuia?"

Seji raised an eyebrow. "Harpuia? What're you talking about?"

"You remind me of Sage Harpuia," Ciel said. "The little imprints underneath your eyes, the way you act, the way you talk to me."

"I would not feign to be so great as he," Seji said.

"I'm back!" X exclaimed as he entered. He stopped as he saw Seji. "Oh. Who're you?"

"I'm Seji, a mercenary. I'm willing to extend my services to you for dirt cheap," Seji replied as he gave a bow.

"I don't hire mercenaries," X said. "I only want people that'll help because they want to help."

"Then I'll work for free," Seji said. "Does that sound good?"

X put his hand to his chin and thought about the offer. "I guess so."

"Being around the legendary X is good enough for me anyway," Seji added.

X blushed. "So, you know then?" Seji nodded. "How'd you find out?"

"The means I'll keep to myself," Seji said.

X shook his head. "When can you work?"

"Today, if possible," Seji offered.

X smiled and laid his hand on Seji's shoulder. "Welcome to our little army then."

"Thank you, X," Seji said. "What's the plan?"

"For now, we're just waiting for Ciel to recover," X said with a small shrug.

"Maybe we could go back to the library?" Ciel suggested. "There's no information on how to stop the Far Realm in this book."

"We might as well. Maybe we can find clues as to where the missing pages are," Axl said. "Maybe the culprit left something behind accidentally that'll identify him?"

"What did you meet up with in the library?" X asked.

"Some dude wrapped in chains," Axl said. "His chains ended in barbs, though, so that hurt. Seemed like he could move them mentally."

X nodded thoughtfully and shrugged. "Nothing I know of. Maybe it's one of those things that attacked Neo Arcadia."

"Maybe," Axl said. "When can you be out and moving about, Ciel?"

Ciel shook her head. "Doctor says another two days."

"Maybe you and Seji should go," X suggested to Axl. "I'll stay here and watch over Ciel, make sure nothing happens. We don't want anything to be removed from the library."

Axl nodded. "All right, Seji. You're coming with me. Is he a Private or what?"

"He's a comrade," X said. "You're both equals."

"I'm much better than you," Seji told Axl.

"Hey! I've been fighting Mavericks for longer than you have!" Axl returned.

"You'll never be as great as X," Seji said calmly. "I'm not either."

"Just get going," X said as he covered his face with his hand.

Seji and Axl went down the hallways of the hospital, not saying a word to each other. They headed out into the busy streets and left the borders of the city. In the distance, Neo Arcadia was already looking abandoned. Axl led the way back to the hole into the library and hit his boosters to keep him from slamming into the ground like before. Seji stayed on top, moving around the hole to see how he could get inside.

Axl smirked and asked mockingly, "Having a hard time getting down?"

"Quiet," Seji said angrily as he continued to look down in the hole. Seji leapt down into the hole, his back barely missing the opposite edge of the hole. He grabbed onto a chandelier and landed on the ground neatly. He smugly started to dust himself off. "Did you say something?"

Axl frowned angrily and went back to the place where he had found the book. He sifted through the shelf, trying to find clues as to what could've ripped the pages out. He sighed after a while. No luck.

"Seji, you found anything?" Axl called out. No response. "Seji?" Axl asked as he wandered over to where he thought Seji went. He rounded a shelf and saw Seji's limp body. "Seji!"

Axl exclaimed as he grabbed Seji and checked for wounds. There was something like an arrow sticking in his side, its tip coated in some type of purple solution.

"What the?" Axl said.

An arrow flew from a dark corner, striking Axl in his side. He leapt to his feet and fired a couple of shots from his pistols, making something fall to the ground. Axl flinched as he pulled the arrow out. No barbs.

"That wouldn't have been smart," Axl said once he thought about the risk he just took with pulling the arrow out.

He hauled Seji onto his shoulder, his eyelids tiredly drooping.

"What's going on?" he heard himself say as he was barely aware of himself falling to the floor.

Axl woke up with a start, chains holding his hands back. "Aw, great," he muttered as he tested the chains.

He looked through the room for Seji, but it was empty. It was just a stone cell, devoid of anything. He struggled against the chains again, but they were embedded deeply in the wall, making his efforts useless. He checked himself for his pistols, but even those were gone.

A few hours passed as Axl counted the drops of water that fell and were making a small pool at the opposite corner of the prison. Something went through the wall, making Axl jerk. He looked angrily at the stranger and kicked it away as it drew closer with keys. It started to yell something in a foreign language and more of its kind walked through the wall and held down Axl's legs, though with difficulty. More of them came through and latched onto Axl's arms as the first one unlocked Axl. They dragged him to his feet and quickly placed some manacles on his legs and arms as they dragged him into a dimly lit room before a tall dark elf. A male dark elf stood to the side, disgust showing in his face. One of the captors spoke and the tall dark elf turned around, making Axl jump.

"A girl!" he exclaimed.

"You were expecting a man in the Drow to be overlooking its slave?" the woman asked, making Axl's jaw drop. "My English is correct."

"Let me go or...!" Axl began.

"Silence, slave!" the woman bellowed. "You will not speak to your masters unless asked a question." She made herself comfortable on a chair as the male Drow served her luxurious foods. "You may speak, if you have a question now."

"What is wrong with your eyes?" Axl asked disgustedly.

"That's enough!" the woman yelled as she got up hastily. She yelled another phrase in the language that the others spoke and Axl was roughly picked up to his feet and dragged to a shack.

Sweat started to form on Axl's forehead as the heat from the shack started to affect him. A few other Drow with special suits on came and grabbed him, letting the others leave, and dragged him closer to an blazing inferno. Another Drow came out, a metal branding tool clutched in his hand as it lay inside of the fire.

"You're really going to brand me like a cow?" Axl asked as the branding tool was pulled out.

The Drow shoved the branding iron into Axl's arm and his screams reverberated down the corridors into the Drow city.

"Axl?" Odin said as he prepared a dish for his master, slowing down in his work.

"You!" a Drow yelled in the language called Deep Speech and whipped Odin's back. "Keep moving!"

"Yes, sir," Odin said in Deep Speech as he flinched from the whip and continued his work.

Odin brought the dish to his master, another female. This was typical in Drow society. Odin knew this. The women were the superiors and ruled the household. The men were servants of high esteem and warriors. Slaves were taken from the surface and given the most disgusting jobs. Odin had found a relatively merciful master since she gave him the job of being a cook. Mostly because he knew all of the Drow dishes like the back of his hand probably. So far, there was no sign of Hiroto or the others which was understandable.

"So your name is Odin, correct?" the master asked.

"That is correct, Excellency," Odin replied as he bowed.

The master nodded. "Can you fight?"

Odin shook his head. "Only a little. I had friends captured with me. They would be more of what you're looking for," Odin said.

The master got up and paced the floor. "Do you know which house they went to?"

Odin shook his head but quickly said, "But it is possible to find out."

"You know how to find them?"

"I'm a cleric. I can find them," Odin said. Inside, he was grinning. If he could get Yua, Hiroto, Haruto, Thor, Alpha, and 2nd Yua, that'd be the first step to their escape.

The master nodded. "You are dismissed. Make the meal for my daughter."

"Thank you for your time, O Great One," Odin said as he bowed and walked away.

He started to build the meal for the daughter. So far, he hadn't seen her yet, but he knew the meal she liked best from what the other servants were saying. He imitated the meal as best as he could and had one of the servants taste it. The servant said it was good so he decorated it as best he could and brought it through a large corridor, strange runes covering the walls. He tried to interpret their meaning but it was hard. Runes were always like that. His foot caught on a stone that was protruding from the ground and he fell, the dish spilling out everywhere.

"Oh no!" he whispered as he quickly collected the food.

He'd have to make the dish again, but this wasn't good. Servants were severely punished for messing up a meal. The door at the end of the corridor opened and Odin fell to his knees.

"A thousand pardons, Daughter of the Great!" Odin exclaimed. "I didn't mean to trip and fall!"

"Are you all right?" the girl asked as she started to gather the food into a small pouch that she kept with her.

Odin's mouth hung open, not quite sure what to say. "What'd you say?"

The girl picked him up onto his feet and asked, "What happened?"

Odin's mouth was still hanging open. That last question was a compassionate question, not an accusing one. The girl giggled and took a small piece of food from Odin's hand and shoved it into her pouch.

"Balhannoth got your tongue?" she asked.

"Um, eh, hoo, haaa..." Odin said, trying to say something.

"Let me guess, 'why're you so kind'?" the girl asked. Odin nodded, still not feeling like he could speak. "I'll tell you later. Just make the meal again and everything will be fine."

The girl grinned and gently pushed Odin backwards. Odin turned and walked back down, casting an occasional glance behind him as the girl left to go back to her room.

"Back so soon, Odin?" one of the servants asked as Odin entered the kitchen.

"She wants it again," Odin explained as he started to make the meal again.

"She must have an appetite today," the servant said as he started to prepare some food for the brother.

Odin glanced over at the meal for the brother and asked, "What is that?"

"This? It's Tubikhu," the servant replied. "It's made of various meats and fungi. Helps produce poison."

"Oh, okay," Odin said as he finished the dish. He liked this one. It was quick to make.

He walked back down the corridor to the girl's room, careful not to trip this time. He knocked on the door and the girl opened it with a smile, making Odin's eyebrow raise. Smiles weren't commonplace in the Drow.

"You look confused," the girl said as she tenderly pulled him in.

The room wasn't too ornate, but it was probably more so than the boys of the Drow. A bed, a closet with a few changes of clothes, an armor closet, and a night-stand. A few diamonds were embedded in the wall, but other than that it wasn't really ornate.

"So this is your room?" Odin asked and the girl nodded.

"So you're from the surface, right?" the girl asked.

"Yeah. I was captured when my companion fell underground and we met up with a Balhannoth," Odin said.

The girl cocked her head to the side. "Is that the one that looked pretty beaten up and had a long black ponytail with gold streaks?"

"That's one of my companions. How did you know about him?" Odin said.

"I have a friend that just got a new slave," the girl said. "He looks pretty weird though. Kinda like a Warforged but much more realistic."

"My master, may she live a long life," Odin began before being cut off by the girl.

"You know you don't really mean that," the girl said as she stared at him accusingly.

Odin sighed. "No, but I don't really have a lot of freedom. I can't just spout off stuff against her. I could get in serious trouble."

"You're safe with me," the girl said with a smile.

Odin smiled back and continued, "Anyway, she's interested in getting my teammates because they have fighting capabilities."

The girl adopted a thoughtful pose. "Then you'll escape?"

Odin grimaced. "Yes."

"And you'll take me with you, right?" the girl inquired.

"Why would you leave?" Odin asked. "Isn't life here good for you?"

"That's the thing. I hate being waited on hand and foot, waiting to be changed into a drider, always scared of being assassinated."

Odin nodded. Assassinations were common in the Drow society. That's how you advanced in social standing.

"I guess we could do that. You know how to get to the surface? I'm lost when it comes to that," Odin said.

The girl nodded. "You probably better go now. They'll be getting angry."

"All right. I'll just set the food on this nightstand, all right?" Odin said as he set the dish on the nightstand.

"That's fine," the girl said with an approving nod.

After that, Odin made his way back to the kitchen and saw an angry cook.

"Where have you been?" the cook snapped.

"In the daughter's chambers," Odin explained. What did he do wrong?

"You were talking to her, weren't you?" the cook said accusingly.

"She didn't object," Odin said as he prepared another dish.

A firm hand was laid on his shoulder and Odin stopped in his work. "Yes, ma'am?"

"Send him to the arena," the master said.

"To heal wounds?" Odin asked, but he knew what she meant.

"To fight," she said.

Not good...

Odin was dragged from the room into the streets, other Drow kicking him as he passed through towards the arena.

Inside the arena, a stalwart Drow glanced over his paperwork towards the Drow dragging Odin. "Punishment?"

The Drow nodded and threw Odin into a small room where a small dagger and wooden armor waited. Other Drow slipped the armor on as Odin tested the dagger's blade. Dull... At least he had his magic.

"Good luck," one of the Drow sneered as he was shoved into the arena. People crowded the stands, their ear-shattering cheers echoing through the entire arena as the gate opposite from Odin opened.

"Drider," Odin said as he gritted his teeth.


	30. Drow Escape

The Drider, a half Drow half spider, circled around the arena. Driders were composed of Drow upper bodies while the legs were replaced by a spider's torso and abdomen. It was a boy, one of the few boys to actually become a drider. Odin muttered a spell as the Drider drew closer and snarled. An anti-magic field. Odin drew his knife. It was dull, but it was all he had. Why didn't he learn about these arenas? He had never heard of these.

The Drider pulled out two longswords and reared up on its rear legs. Odin rushed under, barely avoiding the blades that were attached to the front legs of the Drider as they slammed back down. Odin struck at the abdomen, but apparently there was armor covering it.

"I guess it's a little futile to resist," Odin muttered as he barely avoided the stinger on the abdomen of the Drider.

Odin rushed out from beneath the Drider as it spun around and continued running. The heavy pounding of the Drider followed him and Odin gulped. It would take some skill to take this thing down. An idea slowly formed as Odin gave a burst of speed. He spun around and jumped at the Drider. The Drider brought up his blades, apparently not surprised. That foiled the whole plan... Odin spun around as the Drider's blades cut into his armor easily and broke the breastplate.

"Grip, grip, grip, grip!" Odin yelled mentally as his feet slid out from under him.

The Drider screeched as Odin's fingers clutched onto its abdomen and spun around in circles.

"Please... don't... fall..." Odin groaned as he tried to keep his hold.

His hands finally lost their grip and he was flung into a wall, slightly dazed. Slowly, he picked himself up as the Drider reared up again, the blades on its legs gleaming from the light coming from the stones in the ceiling.

"Kumo! No!"

The Drider's legs fell, but the blades landed on either side of Odin's chest.

"Shurui! This isn't the time!" the Drider exclaimed. "I can't disobey orders!"

A Drow vaulted over the wall that separated the crowd from the arena and landed next to Odin. Odin knit his eyebrows together in confusion.

"You're the..." His other words couldn't make it out of his mouth, due to the confusion.

"The girl from before? Yeah. Kumo's my brother," the girl explained.

The crowd burst out into loud accusations as, slowly, other Driders were being let out.

"This doesn't look good," Odin said as the girl, Shurui, helped him up.

"Kumo... you like it this way, don't you?" Shurui asked, grinning.

Kumo looked down at her and grinned back, slowly turning back to look at the other Driders. "Yeah. I do, actually."

"Let's go," Shurui said as she dragged Odin.

"Wait, shouldn't we help him?" Odin asked, partially resisting her tugging.

"He'll be fine," Shurui said as she grabbed the iron bars that kept them in and melted them away.

"I thought that there was an anti-magic field," Odin said.

"Are you going to be quiet and run with me or just ask stupid questions?" Shurui snapped.

"No, Mistress," Odin said as he finally gripped the ground and started to run.

"This way!" Shurui exclaimed as some of the guards' exclamations rebounded off the tunnel and she dragged Odin down a separate way.

"Wait! What about Hiroto? And Recon? And the others?" Odin exclaimed.

"Do you know where they are?" Shurui asked calmly.

"Give me a few minutes," Odin said.

"WE DON'T HAVE A FEW MINUTES!" Shurui yelled at him angrily. "DO YOU WANNA DIE HERE OR LIVE AT THE SURFACE?"

"I won't sacrifice my friends just for my own life!" Odin retorted. "If that's the monster you are, then I would say that you don't deserve your friend at the surface!"

"Okay, okay! Lead the way!" Shurui exclaimed, partially groaning.

Odin took the lead, partially using the divination powers from his deity to navigate the maze that these Drow arenas were. He led the way outside, successfully avoiding any guards, and out onto a ledge that overlooked the city.

"Wait," he said as he closed his eyes and set his deity's symbol on the ground.

Slowly, he started to mutter in a language that was unknown to everyone except him. Shurui looked around, keeping watch, her hand on her sword's hilt. Slowly, the incantation grew louder, making Shurui increasingly nervous.

"WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU DOING?" Shurui finally yelled as she covered her ears.

The roofs of some houses blew out, pillars of light erupting from them. Odin's eyes snapped open and stopped chanting.

"Wait for me at the surface," he ordered Shurui. "Clear the way."

"Wait, kid!" Shurui yelled as Odin jumped off the edge onto the top of a building. "Be careful..."

Odin rolled as he impacted with the top of a building and ran, jumping from building to building towards the closest pillar of light.

"Please, Kord, do not leave me," Odin muttered as he dropped down. This must be the one with Yua... "YUA!" he yelled. "YUA!"

"Odin? Is that you?"

"Yua! Where are you?" Odin shouted.

"I'm next to the maid's closet!"

Odin ran over there, running across the bodies of Drow that lay motionless on the floor. He found Yua kneeling next to one of the Drow masters and grabbed her arm.

"Hurry," he urged. "Follow the light."

The pillar of light morphed into a stream of light that led its way out of the house and up towards the surface. Yua nodded resolutely and ran off. One down.

Odin started to run back down the streets, Drow starting to follow behind him. He kept his pace until he was in the next house.

"Recon!"

Recon flung himself down the stairs, his weapons slung over his shoulder.

"Had to take the opportunity to grab my weapons," he explained as he ran up to Odin. "Found the chance and just wanted to take it."

"Good man. Follow the light," Odin said as Recon jumped out of a back window.

The Drow mob was coming into the house and Odin looked around for a route that they would lose him. Following a small voice, he ran up the stairs into a large room, an entertaining room, and looked around.

"Please don't leave me alone now, Kord," he whispered.

His eyes locked onto a small dagger in the table and quickly flicked it. A small passage opened and he quickly crawled through it as it shut behind him. His hand slipped and he stumbled, his arm dangling into empty space.

"Drop-off," he said.

No room to reposition himself. Unless... He reached forward and let his hand slowly move downward. It was only a hole in the passage. He dragged himself across the hole and continued on until he pushed a block out and got outside. Next house...

He ran into the next house that had the pillar, only one left after this. He grimaced. That could mean two things. Either the rest of them were left in here and the next one or... some of them were dead...

"Hiroto! Haruto! Thor! Yua!" he called, remembering the 2nd Yua.

Hiroto, Haruto, and Thor emerged, their combat equipment on them, but no Yua.

"Yua. Where is she?" Odin asked. Don't be dead...

"She was bought with the other one," Hiroto said. "Let's go get her."

"I already rescued the other one. I didn't see 2nd Yua with her," Odin said grimly.

Hiroto ran his hand through his hair, taking quick breaths. Odin looked away. He knew what Hiroto's responsibility was.

"Look, Hiroto, get out of here. There's nothing we can do," Odin said. "I've gotta save Axl and then we're leaving."

"I shouldn't have come exploring," Hiroto said, holding his tears back.

"Once the mob notices that I've escaped, they'll come. They can't see the pillars of light, so go before they make it here," Odin said hurriedly.

"Come on, Hiroto," Haruto said.

Hiroto nodded and shouldered his rifle. They ran out of the house, following the shaft of light and Odin sighed. Last one, but no 2nd Yua. He ran over to the last house and searched desperately in the house.

"Axl! Axl!" Odin called.

The ceiling gave way, showing Odin with rocks as he fell and shielded his face with his hand.

"Not you again," he muttered as he dodged the tentacle of a Balhannoth.

He ran downstairs, the Balhannoth ripping through the floors to get to him.

"DIVINE FLARE!" Odin yelled as a large fireball shot out from his hand.

The fireball exploded as it collided with the Balhannoth's head, burning some of the flesh away. The creature roared as Odin readied another spell. It lashed out heavily, smashing Odin into a wall. He slumped down against the wall, clutching his sides as the Balhannoth loomed overhead, its jaw wide open. Odin stood up and cried out as his ribs moved. He dropped down to his knees as the creature's jaws closed around him.

"Just... long... enough," he muttered as he readied a regeneration spell. "Three minutes... that's all..."

He was thrown violently to the side, disrupting his concentration for a second, and a roar came from the Balhannoth, its tongue rising up.

"No!" Odin yelled as he grabbed onto the surface of the tongue, the tears from the pain flowing freely.

A blast hit the roof of the Balhannoth's mouth, making it roar in pain again.

"HANG ON!"

Odin smiled. "ALPHA!" he cried.

"Use this!" Alpha yelled and soon Odin caught a microchip with one of his hands.

Of course! The tentacles would help him grip!

He threw the microchip on the roof of the Balhannoth and grabbed again with his other hand as his grip gradually loosened.

"Alpha! I can't hold on!" Odin yelled.

"Hang on, Odin!" Alpha yelled back.

"Alpha!" Odin yelled as his grip failed and he fell down the creature's throat.

"_Is this my time, Kord?"_ Odin asked as he closed his eyes, submitting himself to death.

"_No, my son. You must continue to help your companions."_

Odin's eyes snapped back open, taking on a reptilian appearance. He spun around, something gathering in his mouth. He let the pressure build until he couldn't hold it and let go, acid spraying directly into the creature's stomach. He reached out and grabbed the creature's esophagus. It quickly shook him off, but that didn't matter. He had another idea.

"DIVINE BLIGHT!" he yelled and unleashed a white flame into the creature's stomach.

Alpha stood outside, reloading his gun behind a rock. The beast drew back, its mouth wide open. It suddenly reared and roared in pain before toppling to the ground.

Alpha came out from behind his rock, panting heavily. "Odin!" he yelled. No response. "Odin!"

Alpha drew closer to the beast. At the least, the Drow behind him were stunned with his fight, but that wouldn't hold them for long... it also helped that he had certain powers to hold them there...

Odin stepped near the creature's belly and stopped, the ground feeling squishy.

"What the?" he said as he stepped away. "Insides?"

A giant hole blew through the beast and out flew Odin, covered in slime.

"Odin?" Alpha asked as he used his boot to clean some of the slime from Odin. Never mind the black dragon wings, the claws, and the pronounced canines. Those weren't really important right now.

"Did I make it?" Odin asked, making Alpha laugh and extend his hand.

"You made it," Alpha said with a grin as he helped Odin up.

"The Drow?" Odin asked, motioning with his head towards them as they started to regain some movement.

"Grab Axl and get out of here. I'll be right behind you," Alpha said.

Odin ran through the house once more and found Axl chained down in one of the dungeons.

"Odin!" Axl exclaimed happily as Odin magically broke the jail and chains.

"Let's go!" Odin said as he led the way back to Alpha.

Odin led the way past the stunned Drow, Alpha and Axl following behind him and led them through some side streets.

"There they are!" some more Drow exclaimed and trapped them in the street that they were in.

"Plan?" Odin asked.

"Blow through them!" Axl said, drawing his pistols.

Alpha grimaced angrily as his gun readjusted to firing large shots. "I'll blow a large hole and we'll get out of here. Axl, you..."

"Wait a minute! What're you doing here?" Axl said, pointing his pistols at Alpha.

"Axl! He's on our side!" Odin said as he shoved Axl's pistols aside.

"Oh yeah? Seemed like last I knew, he was on the bad side!"

"Just trust him for now!" Odin growled. "Go!"

Alpha's gun charged for a second before he let go of the trigger and blew out the Drow from the passage that they needed to go. Odin led the way again, wincing as each arrow dug into his flesh. Why did these even work on them? Odin's eyelids started to droop, threatening to make him go unconscious.

"The arrows are poisoned! Don't stop running!" Odin called back.

They kept running as their strength faded, the Drow gaining ground. Finally, Odin tumbled and Axl and Alpha tripped over him.

"This is the end of me? No, Kord, it can't be, right?" Odin muttered as his eyelids closed.

"_No, my son..."_

* * *

><p><em>End of Book 1.<br>_


End file.
